AUR Deputy Dan Tanasă Sent to Trial: Testimonies of Marian Godină and a Party Leader
The incitement-to-hatred case against AUR Deputy Dan Tanasă includes key statements from former police officer Marian Godină and the chairman of PNȚ Cluj. His messages about foreign workers generated public unrest and a racist attack.
Case at ICCJ: what witnesses declared in the Tanasă case
Former police officer Marian Godină and Romulus Luca, chairman of the Cluj branch of the National Peasants' Party Maniu – Mihalache, are two of the key witnesses heard by prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice in the incitement-to-hatred or discrimination case opened against AUR Deputy Dan Tanasă. According to Gândul, which exclusively studied the case that reached the supreme court, both showed prosecutors that the politician's messages regarding foreign workers in Romania created a state of unrest and can be considered "extremely dangerous, as the danger of extremism is very high".
Who is the accused and what message did he post
PICCJ investigators describe in the case file that Dan Tanasă, aged 45, a graduate in Psychology and Educational Sciences and a Master's student in Communication and Public Relations, initially stood out as a journalist dedicated to the rights of Romanians in Harghita and Covasna counties. Since 2020, he has held the position of deputy in the Romanian Parliament and has made five political statements in his parliamentary activity.
On 19 August 2025, Tanasă posted a message on his Facebook account — followed by 197,198 users — with the following content: "Refuse the order if it is not delivered by a Romanian. Stop encouraging the import of unskilled workers from Asia and Africa. Wake up! A dictatorship never installs itself alone, but to the applause of those with weak minds. The West is sinking under the Islamic wave, and Europeans cry into their fists because they were not careful about the mass import of immigrants. I do not want such a thing in Romania!".
The message recorded at least 12,325 views and reactions, over 10,549 comments and was redistributed by at least 1,141 users. It was taken up by Romania's main press trusts, becoming, according to the case file, "a major subject of public debate".
Political statement concerning the "replacement of European population"
Prosecutors also included in the case file a political statement made by Tanasă during the Chamber of Deputies session of 13 May 2026, in which he warned of the "replacement of the European population with populations brought from other parts of the globe". Investigators note that the statement "highlights the accused's fear regarding the possibility that the European population might be replaced", him assessing that "this mental disorder that is leading Europe down the path of perdition and total erasure of European identity is called suicidal sympathy".
Following the August 2025 post, Tanasă deleted the message from Facebook and published subsequent messages through which, according to investigators, he sought to "minimise the impact of his own behaviour".
Racist assault in Bucharest, included in the same case
The case file also includes a violent incident that occurred in Bucharest on 26 August 2025, seven days after the deputy's post. An accused person committed acts of physical violence against a citizen originally from Bangladesh, a worker in Romania, hitting the victim with his fist in the face area and causing him traumatic injuries, "from racial and xenophobic motive, with the stated purpose of forcing him to leave Romanian territory". During the assault, the perpetrator transmitted to the victim: "Go back to your country, that is the problem! Niggal. Because you are an invader."
Prosecutors include this episode in the broader context generated by Tanasă's messages, showing that "the dynamics of events generated a response from society", several public and private figures denouncing the deputy's behaviour as "a deliberate action of inciting the public to hatred and discrimination against workers in Romania coming from Asia and Africa".
What Godină and Luca declared
Romulus Luca alerted the prosecutor's office of the supreme court in October 2025 through a criminal complaint in which he showed that the deputy "committed the offence of incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination" through the post of 19 August 2025.
Marian Godină, the former police officer who became widely known to the public through his writings about activity in the Romanian Police, also filed a complaint against the parliamentarian. According to documents from the case file, Godină showed prosecutors that Tanasă's messages "hurt the dignity" of those targeted and can fuel a dangerous climate, in a context where "the danger of extremism is very high".
Legal context and profile of the accused
Investigators emphasise that Tanasă's experience in the field of communication and his studies in psychology are relevant elements in evaluating intent: "the circumstances regarding the accused's experience and his studies in the field of psychology and communication presume that he acted conscious of the impact of the message, accepted its consequences and pursued their production, an aspect highlighted subsequently through successive comments to the initial call".
Tanasă was also a member of the Commission for Human Rights, Cults and National Minorities' Issues in the Romanian Parliament. The case is now on the desk of ICCJ judges.
Source: Gândul