The most searched word ‘legionnaire’ after the first round of the presidential elections in Romania

According to an index compiled by dictionary website DEX.com, “legionnaire” was the most searched word by Romanians on the night of November 24, after the first round of the presidential elections.

The word describes a member or sympathizer of the Legion of the Archangel Michael or the Legionary Movement, a fascist and anti-Semitic organization active in Romania during the interwar period and at the beginning of World War II. The Romanian Legion was inspired by the German SS organization and carried out violent actions against the Romanian state and some of its leaders.

According to a Facebook post from DEX onlinethe next most searched words were ‘sovereignty’, with 1,570 searches; ‘anti-Semitism’, with 641 views; and ‘mason’, with 522. On election night, Romanians also searched for the meaning of words such as ‘diaspora’, ‘Russophile’ and ‘pedology’. As of 6:10 a.m., “Legionnaire” had registered 2,234 views.

The searches took place after Călin Georgescu, an allegedly pro-Russian candidate with legionnaire and anti-Semitic discourse, emerged as the big winner of the first round of the presidential electionswho advances to the second round in first place. He won more than 2 million votes, or almost 23%.

Georgescu-Roegen rose to fame when the far-right AUR leader George Simion nominated him as prime minister. Yet he stepped back shortly afterwards, in February 2022, after praising interwar legionary leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. He also called Romanian autocratic World War II leader Ion Antonescu a hero G4Media.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against him for glorifying those guilty of genocide and war crimes. Georgescu-Roegen has often praised “Russian wisdom” and during an election debate on Digi24 he could not say whether he admires Putin or not.

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(Photo source: Dexonline on Facebook)