[mrtksn]

Who is considered the establishment in Romania?

As far as I can see, modern Romania appears to be ruled mostly by the Social Democrats whose candidate came 3rd and was disqualified from the second round. They also appeared to have roots in the Communist era, is that right?

Can we say that this move was to save the Social Democrats? Who were supposed run agains't the liberals and win I guess, but this pro-Russia candidate came from nowhere and the 2nd round turned into pro-Russia vs pro-West, right?

[cbg0]

PNL & PSD are establishment parties in Romania. We are a young democracy, since the end of 1989 when we ended communism with people rising up to fight in the streets for a better tomorrow, so the aforementioned parties do have roots in communism, but they are by no means communist parties.

The Social Democrats haven't won the presidency in decades and their current candidate sunk them in this election process even though he was sure to win, but some missteps he took associating himself with people connected to a huge real estate scam sunk his campaign.

Whether this move helps Social Democrats (PSD) is unlikely, as their current candidate is still just as unpopular and would most likely not win.

You are correct that because of this Russophile candidate the runoff turned into a pro-EU vs pro-Russia fight.

[mrtksn]

Why the Romanian diaspora is so much pro-Russian? I have some idea from the Bulgarian diaspora but I don't know how much it aligns with the Romanian.

[cbg0]

Not as much pro-Russian as they are anti-establishment and also surprisingly anti-EU, even though they live in EU outside of Romania. Many of them are working minimum paid jobs in tough working conditions, plus they have trouble integrating there, so they dislike their current situation and find the blame in EU & the country they're living in.

There's also tremendous amounts of anti-EU propaganda on social media which they're subjected to and most people in today's age don't bother fact checking anything so they just trust whatever's showing up on their screen.

[mebcitto]

Georgescu's voters don't see themselves as pro-Russian. They think of themselves as "patriots", anti-LGBT, and anti-establishment. They also think that we are helping Ukraine too much, at the expense of domestic issues.

These are the messages that were used on TikTok, an open pro-Russia message would have been buried quickly.

[zsombor]

I think it is more about urban vs rural voters. Latter group is more likely to vote with CG, even after emigrating. It takes more time for them to pick up western values simply because they are economically disadvantaged at home and to a lesser degree abroad as well.

[sincerecook]

Romanian culture is pretty conservative by modern Western standards. All the gay stuff is completely foreign and anathema to someone who grew up in it (most Romanians are orthodox Christians) and the political correctness/liberal propaganda is a return to the communist system but as applied to culture rather than economics. Russia is seen as the last bastion in Europe willing to stand up for traditional values.