The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romanian: Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor, AUR, meaning "gold" in Romanian)^[2] is a right-wing populist and nationalist^[32] political party currently active in Romania and Moldova. It was founded on 19 September 2019 ahead of the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections. The party president is George Simion.

The party ran in the local elections, not obtaining many votes and only winning in three towns. However, in the legislative elections, the AUR won 9% of the votes in all of Romania and its diaspora, thus becoming the fourth-largest party in the country at the central level, which surprised observers.

AUR aims for the unification of all Romanians from Romania and Romanian-populated neighbouring zones, and for the support of the Romanian diaspora in other countries. The party seeks the unification of Moldova and Romania, supports NATO membership and aims for energy independence for Romania. It claims it is a centre-right,^[33] national-patriotic,^[34] Christian democratic party.^[35] However, it has been accused of supporting anti-vaccination ideas and being Magyarophobic,^[36][37][7] neo-fascist,^[38][39] pro-Russian^[40][41] and antisemitic,^{[25][27][42][43]} although relevant figures of the party have rejected all these accusations.^[44][45][46] The party states that its four main pillars are "family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty".

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians was formally established on 19 September 2019.^[47] Later, during the Great Union Day of Romania on 1 December 2019, its leader, George Simion, said the party's aims were to participate in the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections of the country.^[48] Simion had up to this point been a campaigner for the unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova.^[7] Claudiu Târziu, who was co-president of the party along Simion until 27 March 2022,^[49] was a member of Coalition for the Family which unsuccessfully campaigned to ban gay marriage through constitutional change in a 2018 referendum.^[50][51]

On 26 June 2020, AUR condemned the disinterest of the Romanian authorities regarding the minority rights of the Romanians in Serbia and Ukraine and declared that it would fully support them once it entered the Romanian Parliament.^[52] Two days later, AUR also condemned the 80th anniversary of the annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region by the Soviet Union, declaring that "it is our obligation to regain our state".^[53]

By July 2020, AUR counted 22 branches in Europe and North America for the Romanian diaspora.^[54] The first of these was established in Wolverhampton, in the United Kingdom.^[55]

AUR was the only party in Romania that expressed support for Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election.^[56]

AUR is young as a party, but it didn't come out of nowhere. It brings together some people whose history is linked to the late period of communism. Its candidates are experts in propaganda, intellectuals with more or less open sympathy for legionnaires and legionary or pro-legionary intellectuals, businessmen and itinerant politicians who wander from one radical party to another.

— Oliver Jens Schmitt^[76]

According to the party's website, AUR's ultimate goal is to achieve the unification of all Romanians "wherever they are located, in Bucharest, Iași, Timișoara, Cernăuți, Timoc, Voivodina, Italy, or Spain". The website names four pillars for the party: family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty.^[28][51] The party characterizes its members as "the defenders of the Church".^[56] It is opposed to "gender ideology" and believes that a nation has no chance of surviving "unless it cultivates the original pattern of the classic family".^[29]

The party's representatives became popular on social media as a result of their positioning against measures taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading members, such as Șoșoacă (later expelled), gained thousands of followers. AUR has been described as supporting "anti-medicine, anti-vaccination" rhetoric.^[51] This accusation was rejected by George Simion, president of AUR, claiming that the party supports the "freedom of choice".^[77] The party's manifesto opposes secularism and condemns atheism, and claims that Christians are persecuted in Romania.^[30] The party has been critical of the impact of the local autonomy of Hungarians in Romania on the rights of ethnic Romanians in the centre of the country (where the Hungarians are the majority),^[29] leading to accusations of being Magyarophobic.^[7] The latter accusation was rejected by the president of AUR,^[78] and the party denounced the media, accusing media outlets of spreading false information about its campaign.^{[citation needed]} Simion has cited Law and Justice and Fidesz, the ruling parties in Poland and Hungary respectively, as some of his models.^[79][80] However, AUR has also expressed deep criticism of Fidesz, stating that it would not join the same group in the European Parliament as Fidesz, due to its claims on Romanian territory.^[81]

AUR wishes to position Romania as a leader in central and eastern Europe within the European Union and to integrate the Republic of Moldova into Romania.^[82] The party is pro-NATO and views the integration of Moldova into Romania as strengthening NATO's eastern flank.^[29] The party also takes a strongly pro-Israel stance, supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank.^[83] It supports the Serbian stance on the political status of Kosovo, considering Kosovo to be part of Serbia.^[84]

By 2023, the party had become critical of Romanian military support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, suggesting that the war is "not ours". AUR also criticised the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania, and Simion has been banned from entering Ukraine.^[85] Nevertheless, the party leadership is critical of relations with Russia, with Simion calling for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador and closing Russian consulates in Romania following Russian threats against Romania in December 2023.^[86]

AUR wishes to ensure Romania's self-sufficiency in energy, the prosecution of those deemed responsible for mismanaged post-Communist privatisation projects, and a fight against illegal logging by banning the export of non-processed wood.^[79] Additionally, AUR wishes to reform and modernize the education system, with a focus on reducing the overhead of political administration in order to improve the quality and the availability of education in Romania.^{[citation needed]}

The party has a senate, which is equivalent to the National Executive Committee of other Romanian parties such as the PSD, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Save Romania Union (USR).^[87]

• Politics of Romania
• Politics of Moldova
• Romanian Nationhood Party
• Law and Justice (Poland)