Similarly, if anyone knows of any research relating to the effects of international medical students (particularly UK) going to Romania, Bulgaria or elsewhere in CEE, please let me know!

Congratulations!

AUR's Moldovan branch not having a great night thus far. At the time of posting, only 38 votes in Romania, 0 in the UK, and not even 1300 in Moldova itself.

A useful reminder that whilst the party polls well in Romania on an ostensibly pro-unification platform, it doesn't transfer over to Moldova.

PAS on 88% in Romanian polling stations so far, compared to just 2% for the Patriotic Bloc.

Interestingly, with half of the polling stations reported in Germany, the Patriotic Bloc is polling lower than PPDA.

This attempt to transpose US social cleavages onto the UK electorate isn't backed by data, so what exactly is the strategy here?

The logical conclusion is therefore that this is going to become far more commonplace in coming years, particularly in the extra-Parliamentary environment like this weekend.

Being able to display international recognition and gain prominence abroad is a higher priority for the party, and Simion personally. When viewed through a strategic lens, it is easy to understand the relegation of ideology in their consideration.

There is of course the irony of a party that has long complained of mistreatment of the diaspora working with individuals who were a significant part of said vilification. To ignore this, to use the language of Weyland and an earlier post in the thread, is a strategic choice.

On 3) there are important points to be made regarding how the Romanian far right has consistently shown willingness to seek international allies in recent months. British and American actors were at Georgescu's events, Vance and Trump Jr were frequently courted for support post Dec 8.

Farage's appeals about Romanian and Bulgarian immigration are now replaced by wider grand narratives of conspiratorial European meddling, and this displays a key feature of far-right rhetoric: it is not immutable. It is strategic, focusing on whatever they can portray to be the zeitgeist.

On 2), the idea that the now ex-leder of the EDL would be introducing Polish and Romanian actors in a friendly light would have been incredibly alien in 2016.

This reflects changing priorities - with the referendum in the past, immigration from Eastern Europe is no longer the focus.

In many respects it can be seen to hark to the idea of a 'Europe of Nationalists' that gained some traction in the 2010s.

Of note however is that this is a mix of actors, and international cooperation between a political party leader and a protest leader and online influencer.

This is unusual - whilst we have seen it occur domestically (think MAGA/QAnon flirtation), it is unusual to see it cross borders like this.

On the first point, I want to acknowledge this isn't new. The BNP had interacted with the then-FN (now RN, Rassemblement National) and drew inspiration from Haider in Austria. UKIP at times looked to do something similar.

There's much that can be said about this:
1. The internationalisation of nationalism
2. The shift in priorities among the British far-right.
3. The increasingly external perspective of the Romanian far-right (not alone in CEE in this regard).

This is just a brief summation, there will be more over coming days regarding the potential impacts of this, and the response to it from across the political spectrum.