The US message, after the Elie Wiesel Institute's accusations against AUR. “President Trump has made it clear”
The United States Embassy in Bucharest sent a message on Tuesday expressing its support for “those dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust”. The statement comes after the Elie Wiesel Institute accused AUR of “wanting to abolish” it, a charge denied by the party.
“President Trump has made it clear: 'Anti-Semitism has no place in a civilized society,'” the US diplomatic mission wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The embassy described “Holocaust commemoration and education” as “essential to combating anti-Semitism”.
“The commemoration of the Holocaust honors the victims of the past. And it is about defending religious freedom, human dignity and the fundamental values that are the basis of Western civilization – values that we proudly share with the Romanian people,” the embassy said.
In conclusion, the diplomatic mission states that it “stands with those dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and ensuring that future generations will understand the consequences of violence, hatred, intolerance and extremism”.
What the Elie Wiesel Institute had declared
On Monday, the institute claimed that “it has become official” that “AUR wants the abolition of the Elie Wiesel Institute and the Museum of the History of Jews and the Holocaust in Romania”.
The National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania “Elie Wiesel” invokes in this regard an address addressed to the Government and Parliament by Mirel Todirică, AUR local councilor in Balotești, who accused the institute of “turning into an entity with the role of ideological censorship”.
The Elie Wiesel Institute dismissed the local AUR councilor's claims as “false” and accused the party of “anti-Semitism”.
The GOLD reaction
In a statement after the post of the Elie Wiesel Institute, AUR stated that the address formulated by local councilor Mirel Todirică “does not represent the official position” of the party.
“There was no acceptance of the political formation for such an initiative and no mandate granted in this regard. We consider unacceptable the attempt to attribute to the entire party a position that was not assumed at the level of the AUR leadership, and we request the withdrawal of the accusations publicly formulated by the “Elie Wiesel” Institute against our formation”, declared the AUR.
In addition, the AUR claimed that there are “serious question marks regarding compliance with the legal provisions on the protection of personal data and the GDPR” in the post of the Elie Wiesel Institute, in which the address formulated by Mirel Todirică was taken.
