THE FASCIST KATECHON AND THE COMMUNIST ANTICHRIST: HOW AUR PARTY USES SOCIAL MEDIA TO REVIVE INTERWAR LEGIONARY MANICHEAN THINKING
THE FASCIST KATECHON AND THE COMMUNIST ANTICHRIST: HOW AUR PARTY USES SOCIAL MEDIA TO REVIVE INTERWAR LEGIONARY MANICHEAN THINKING

Summary/Abstract: In 2020, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) – a recently formed and then largely unknown radical right party – managed to win seats in Parliament. Described by many as populist, nationalist, or far right, AUR began to reveal its affinities with the interwar Legionary Movement, the autochthonous permutation of fascism. This paper examines how AUR integrates in their political discourse interwar fascist ideas with right-wing populism and further disseminates these narratives through its three leaders’ use of social media. It employs a hybrid empirical approach combining Natural Language Processing with Discourse Historical Analysis to critically deconstruct the discourses of AUR leaders George Simion, Claudiu Târziu and Sorin Lavric.

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