“Legionnaire” the most frequently searched word after the first round of the presidential elections in Romania

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

The word describes a member or supporter of the Archangel Michael’s Legion or the Legionnaires’ Movement, a fascist and anti-Semitic organization operating in Romania during the interwar period and at the beginning of World War II. The Romanian Legion, inspired by the German SS organization, committed brutal actions against the Romanian state and some of its leaders.

According to a Facebook post by DEX on the Internetthe next most searched word was “sovereignty” with 1,570 searches; “anti-Semitism” – 641 views; and “mason” – 522. On election night, Romanians also looked for the meanings of words such as “diaspora”, “Russophile” and “pedology”. By 6:10 a.m. “Legionnaire” had recorded 2,234 views.

The searches took place after Călin Georgescu, an allegedly pro-Russian candidate with a Legionnaire and anti-Semitic discourse, turned out to be the big winner of the first round of the presidential electionsadvancing to the second round in first place. He won well over 2 million votes, or almost 23%.

Georgescu rose to prominence when far-right AUR leader George Simion proposed him as prime minister. Nevertheless, he stepped down shortly thereafter, in February 2022, after praising interwar legionnaire leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. According to him, he also called Romanian autocratic leader Ion Antonescu a hero G4Media.

The prosecutor’s office initiated a criminal case against him for glorifying those guilty of genocide and war crimes. Georgescu often praised “Russian wisdom”, and during the election debate on Digi24 he could not say whether he admired Putin or not.

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(Image source: Dexonline on Facebook)