Neil Clark

Democracy dies in Romania

(Photo: Getty)

If the vote in the first round goes the wrong way, cancel the second round. If the ‘wrong’ candidate is still likely to win the rescheduled election, then detain him before he can register to stand and then ban him. Then hold the election again, this time with a stronger ‘independent’ candidate who with media support can defeat the ally of the ‘wrong’ but more popular candidate you have banned. This is exactly what has happened in Romania.

If ‘democratic values’ trump democracy then you open the door to barring candidates who espouse the ‘wrong’ positions, according to the powers that be

Democratic? Well, if it happened in an ‘official enemy’ country, we can be sure ‘centrists’ would be falling over themselves to denounce it. But when it happens in an EU or Nato member state, in the immortal words of Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun, it’s a case of ‘Nothing to see here!’.

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