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.

[34] It has been described as supporting anti-vaccination ideas and being Magyarophobic,[35][36][12] neo-fascist,[37][38] pro-Russian,[39][40][41][42] and antisemitic;[24][26][43][44] relevant figures of the party have rejected all these characterizations.

[53] 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.

[12] Claudiu Târziu, who was co-president of the party along Simion until 27 March 2022,[55] was a member of Coalition for the Family which unsuccessfully campaigned to ban gay marriage through constitutional change in a 2018 referendum.

[58] 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".

[62] During the 2020 Romanian local elections, AUR won the mayoralty in three towns: Amara, Pufești, and Valea Lungă.

[63] In the 2020 Romanian legislative election, AUR obtained a high percentage of the votes, being called as the "surprise" of Romania.

Its most significant percentages were in the counties where the Romanian Orthodox Church has a strong influence and a large number of practicing believers.

[69] Recorder, a Romanian online publisher, argues that the election campaign of AUR has adapted to the rural environment, which lacks modern technology, relying more on messages desired by the masses than on a coherent ideology.

[74][75] On 5 October 2021, a motion of no confidence initiated by AUR, but legally proposed by PSD, was passed with 281 votes, thus dismissing the Cîțu Cabinet.

The encounter drew outrage from some Israelis and diaspora Jews, as AUR is officially boycotted by Israel due to its history of antisemitism.

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.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", while wanting to unite Romania and Moldova together, as well as land with Romanian speakers in neighboring countries.

[62] 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".

[citation needed] Simion has cited Law and Justice and Fidesz, the ruling parties in Poland and Hungary respectively, as some of his models.

AUR also criticised the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania, and Simion has been banned from entering Ukraine.

[98] 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.