Agence France-Presse, February 4, 2000.

BRAȘOV, Romania — Former Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile set up a far-right party which he said would be an ally of conservative parties in Austria and Britain. The new Romanian People’s Party (PPR), with Vasile as its president, was based, according to its manifesto, on “the central role of the nation and the church, authoritarianism and the rejection of multiculturalism.”

“Suspicion of foreigners should be thought of as a natural instinct, because social cohesion can be affected by the presence of foreigners,” the manifesto read. The PPR took over from the Party of the Romanian Right, previously well known for its anti-Semitic and xenophobic positions.

Vasile said his new party would ally itself with other European conservative parties, including Britain’s Conservative Party and Austria’s People’s Party — which was at the time poised to enter a coalition government with the far-right Freedom Party.