Did you enjoy the first Advent calendar gift? A little dopamine rush in the morning, just enough to get you in the holiday mood. For some of us, the holiday mood is a bit delayed. Why, you might wonder? Well, if you are from Moldova, you just dodged a bullet by electing a pro-European president. However, if you are from Georgia, that bullet hit straight, and now you are probably on the streets trying to get your country back from the foreign operatives. And, Romania.
Well, Romania. Today, Romanians are supposed to celebrate their coming together (the union of Moldavians, Wallachians, and Transylvanians). Yet the celebrations are overshadowed by society being split apart at the seams. Families turned against each other, old friendships ended in minutes, people returned to religious fundamentalism. Why? A well-crafted Russian hybrid attack via TikTok. A mystic leader that speaks well and is able to reflect people’s fears and anger that has appeared from nowhere. He has an aura that makes some people think that he is the second coming of Jesus. That, together with the power of algorithms to continuously feed exactly what you want to hear, had damaging effects on democracy. The result? We will know after December 9.
However, everyone is worried. From Washington to Brussels, from Copenhagen to Paris, all the state leaders are looking at the events unfolding in Romania. A Russian takeover of an EU and NATO member would be damaging to both and would weaken the Eastern Front. If this succeeds, no democracy will be safe from the power of TikTok.
