Romanian Nationalists Weave Xenophobic Parable From Poaching Death Of Arthur The Bear
May 10, 2021 17:04 GMT
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BUCHAREST Ascendant right-wing populists in Romania have seized on the illegal trophy killing of a brown bear ascribed to Liechtenstein s royal family to blame foreigners as the driving factor in the country s social and economic woes.
Romanians and outside ecological groups were outraged by reports last week that Prince Emanuel a nephew of Liechtenstein s reigning Prince Hans-Adam II who lives in Austria had killed the massive male bear, nicknamed Arthur by researchers, in the Carpathian Mountains in March.
But George Simion, head of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR, which means gold in Romanian) party whose meteoric appearance shook up last year s national elections, skipped the environmental implications to invoke a carefully crafted appeal to patriotism, nationalism, religion, and Romanian gangsta rap.