Paranormal involvement in Romanian presidential elections, 2009
Following the Romanian presidential election, 2009, starting with Viorel Hrebenciuc's claims of a "violet flame" that would have helped Traian Băsescu win the latter elections of 2004, and culminating with Mircea Geaonă's claim that he had been "energetically attacked", kept even more alive by his wife soon claiming the same thing, a huge scandal regarding the involvement of specialized people using paranormal and magic means interfering in the natural democratic[1] process, most television stations took on the story, analyzing it in all the ways it could understand it. The political scene was asked, and strangely enough, soon after, former candidates like Crin Antonescu, or one of Băsescu's supporters in the campaign, Varujan Vojganian, expressed vivid and strong knowledge on the domain of spirituality[2], much to the shock of many Romanians.
The Romanian political and journalistic scene wasn't just untouched by this new development, but it stayed entirely rigid and true to its former positions: the aforementioned supporters of Băsescu defended him on Realitatea TV, while Antena 1 and its sister channels did everything to show Băsescu as either guilty of "sorcery" (see witch hunt) or just plain nuts for believing in everything.[2]
These apparently "random" allegations came with the confirmation of one Aliodor Manole, a self-proclaimed spiritualist, author of a book called "the violet flame". This character was seen, in the "last debate event" between Băsescu and Geoană, at Băsescu's side before everything got started. The political scene started to "burn" even more when it was reveled this Aliodor was also at one of Geoană's former campaigns, sparking questions between the Romanian people and Romanian press alike: we thought we had Christian "leaders", as according to some recenzes on the population, around 80-90% of Romanians are convinced Orthodox Christians.
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Background
Months before the elections, during the presidential campaign, Viorel Hrebenciuc (sometimes nicknamed "Hrebe"), one of the leading (and some would say shadowy) characters of PSD, who's party leader was and is Mircea Geoană, claimed Traian Băsescu would use the mystical power of the "violet flame", giving as evidence his wearing of a purple plover in the campaign. These observations were taken with mixed reactions. On the one side, it sounded a bit crazy and it was easy to ridicule; on the other hand, however, Hrebenciuc is a man hardly fitting the "senile" category, despite his age, having great implications in the economic situation of the party and even of the country. During the campaign, Hrebenciuc was put at the wall of infamy as one of the moguls governing Romanian economy with corruption, along Sorin Ovidiu Vântu and Dan Voiculescu of Antena 1 by Băsescu. Hrebe's allegations faded quickly, with very sporadic TV shows discussing this aspect. Hrebenciuc's original affirmations would have a great effect in the later discussions however.
Aftermath
While there was no agreement over whether Băsescu's "spiritual counselors" influenced the elections or not (mostly due to the two main news stations arguing in both way without leaving the room for middleground), it was mutually accepted that he had them and used them, but their involvement also for the benefit of Geoană's campaign was additionally exposed. This left a sower taste in most people's mouths, as some felt betrayed as Christians, others betrayed as men of logic, while others still became afraid of the possibilities of manipulation a person with supernatural powers may have on them, if they had on someone as high-profiled as Mircea Geoană.
Another interesting result of the situation was the possibility of people claiming to be invested with supernatural power of greater mediatization (although they had their share of TV show invites until then, but until this event, it was seen most of a "niche interest"), who used the oportunity to tell the people they exist for their good, sometimes sent by a higher power, and that most are interested only in the concept of love and healing, as opposite to psychic attacks and fear-inducing techniques, which they chuck off to the state powers and secret services.
The fading
After the more or less forced involvement of Mircea Geoană and his wife into the affair, it seems they decided the publicity would more damage his image than vindicate his elections loss, so they stopped commenting the issue when the debates were at their peak. Traian Băsescu or any official spokesman have not commented since the beginning, and left his position the least to say ambiguous.
After nearly a week of discussions on this matter in the media, the subject was roughly "tired out", and is slowly replaced by the recent Winter meteorological problems in Romania, as well as the international earthquake disaster in 
Haiti.
Further reading
- Times article calls Geoană a "looser"; this has been debated in the press that it may refer to both pejoratives meanings of "sore looser", and "looser" as washout.
- Romania abuzz with claim winner of president election enlisted the paranormal
-
Băsescu ÅŸi Paranormalul on kyb's blog
Notes and references
- ↑ The nature of democracy in Romania is still highly debatable, however for our uses, we will assume it is "solid"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Băsescu ÅŸi Paranormalul on kyb's blog
Note that although the title of the article includes the year 2009, the actual events started to be told in the media in January 2010. The year in the title refers to the events later revealed in 2010.
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