Exploring channels of dissensus. The articulation of the grasroots illiberalism in the Romanian case

In most recent cases of democratic backsliding, the political ascent of illiberal ideas followed a straightforward pathway of institutionalisation. A dominant/mainstream party used the available political resources to disseminate narratives conducive to disruptive forms of political dissensus. The process has primarily been a top-down political effort to enhance illiberal trends in society and to diminish the force of the liberal opposition. The Romanian case, however, seems to have followed a divergent trajectory, as the recent democratic crisis, centred on the contestation of liberal values, has been constructed from the grassroots level. In this vein, a marginal party/candidate benefited from multiple forms of organizational support (e.g., illiberal civil society organizations) to grow in tandem through ideological clarification and electoral definition. At least at first glance, illiberal dissensus preceded the actual politicization (namely, the electoral rise of the now-consolidated radical right parties). While the presence of illiberal values is not extraordinary per se in new democracies, my paper will explore how illiberal narratives moved from the fringes to the center, from diffuse, localized talking points to public ownership. The approach will follow the dissemination of anti-Soros narratives in the Romanian central and local printed press from 2014 (when the Soros Foundation ceased all activities in Romania) until 2024. The study will show that the local newspapers have been the key driver in imposing a hardline narrative of the so-called anti-Sorosism – often mixed with antisemitic tropes. In contrast, the central press has enhanced the process of ‘normalizing’ illiberal tropes by using different correlatives (i.e., the alleged foreign inference in the anticorruption campaign or in the judicial reforms). The conclusions will also reveal the absence of well-founded counter-narratives from liberal politicians or journalists, as well as their relatively rapid adoption of some of the RRP’s political tropes. The paper aims, in this manner, to contribute to a better understanding of the processes of institutionalization of bottom-up illiberalism.