Romania's Constitutional Court on Friday ruled against the first round of the presidential election after declassified intelligence documents suggested that a Russian influence operation led to a surprise victory for nationalist candidate Karin Georgescu. The vote was invalidated.
Romania's president is an influential political leader, but his powers are limited compared to the country's prime minister. Nevertheless, Romanians vote for a president who works in conjunction with the prime minister and other political leaders.
Mr. Georgescu, 62, is a former soil scientist. worked He worked for the Romanian Ministry of the Environment and later served as Romania's representative at the United Nations Environment Programme. He entered politics as a member of the nationalist Union of Romanian Unity (AUR), but left the party during internal conflicts and became an independent candidate.
Georgescu is an admirer of President-elect Donald Trump and has expressed agreement with him on a number of issues, including opposition to climate change and LGBTQ propaganda. He has also expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, deep skepticism about Western aid to Ukraine, and very harsh criticism of left-wing billionaire George Soros.
This week Georgescu said He intended to ban exports of Ukrainian grain through Russia, the main pipeline for Ukrainian grain to circumvent the Russian blockade, and halt further military aid to Kiev.
“We can't imagine a war happening next to us in the middle of Europe, so the priority is definitely that this war in Ukraine has to stop immediately,” he said.
One area where Georgeszczuk strongly disagrees with Trump is NATO spending. President Trump has insisted that NATO members meet their obligation to spend 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, but Georgescu said he is “not even interested” in increasing military spending. Ta.
“The Romanian people's concern is to be happy. They cannot be satisfied by spending money on other things. If NATO is defensive, it should remain defensive. “We believe in one thing: Romania has no obligations to anyone,” he said.
Mr. Georgescu is also an economic nationalist, running a platform that gives Romanian companies majority control over co-investments with foreign companies, opposing the privatization of state assets, and criticizing the European Union's failure to lift Romania out of poverty. Disputing the funding program.
“Have European funds helped us? Are we dependent on European funds? Can we not produce in this country? Are there no other investors? There’s money everywhere, I’m telling you,” he said Tuesday.
Georgescu ran together. Strong Christian themes His campaign promoted traditional values and appealed to rural Romanians who felt alienated and abandoned by urban political culture. Agence France-Presse (AFP) Found Voters disgusted with Romania's political system flocked to Georgescu, many of them center-right, citing his campaign's message of Christian faith and his resistance to LGBTQ issues. chose him over the alternatives.
Much of that hatred is fueled by Romania's status as a nation-state. the most corrupt European countries. Transparency International regularly rank It has one of the lowest integrity scores on the continent.
Another trend among Georgeszsk voters is that they tend to distrust the establishment media and believe that media criticism of upstart candidates is excessive. Some told AFP that after watching Georgescu's TikTok videos they concluded that he was not the monster he was portrayed in Romanian and international media and decided to give him a chance.
Mr. Georgescu was considered an unknown fringe candidate going into the election. He spent little on his campaign – he claims he spent nothing, but others dispute that boast – and has kept most of his followers on social media platforms. Built. especially TikTok.
“The most important existing facility for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media,” he said. said When asked if he had any concerns about using Chinese-owned TikTok as a main means of election campaigning,
Although Romanian media largely ignored him as a sideshow, he left a huge footprint online, winning an astonishing 31 percent of the youth vote. Like other upstart right-wing candidates in the free world, he has circulated in the media to complain, though international media have uniformly described him as a “far-right,” “ultra-nationalist,” and even a “fascist.” He found a way to appeal to voters who have
Romanian political observers were therefore stunned when he came first in last week's presidential election. When the results come out released In Monday's vote, Georgescu came in first with 22.9% of the vote. Elena Lasconi, a former journalist and mayor of the Union for the Rescue of Romania (USR) party, came in second place with 19.17%, followed closely by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu from the center-left, pro-European Union Social Democratic Party (PSD). Ta.
Mr. Ciolak received about 3,000 fewer votes than Mr. Lasconi, and by a narrow margin the PSD was excluded from the mandatory second run-off for the first time in 30 years. There were actually 14 candidates in the race, most of them more “centrist” than Georgescu, so voters from other parties rallied against the dark horse nationalist independent on Monday. This led to confident predictions that Mr. Rasconi would become president. The only other strong right-wing major candidate was populist George Simion, who had expected to finish second, but was shocked to find he came fourth behind Ciolak.
Opinion polls quickly revealed Georgescu as the front-runner in the second round of elections on Sunday, with support from Simion and the AUR party, further swaying Romanian political and media circles. It surprised me. On Friday, the Constitutional Court ruled on the annulment, sparking an outcry from Georgescu voters who accused the long-ruling PSD of using the court to annul an election it did not win fairly.
The Constitutional Court invalidated the election following the release of declassified Romanian intelligence documents earlier this week. blame Georgesk won with the help of about 25,000 fake TikTok accounts controlled by a Russian disinformation campaign.
More documents proposed Romania's election system was compromised in a wave of over 85,000 cyberattacks. The speed, scale, and scale of the attack were presented as evidence of coordination by a state actor, presumed to be Russia.
On Thursday, Romania's top prosecutor opened an investigation into “allegations regarding electoral crimes that may have influenced the voting process through methods such as corrupting voters, including in the online environment.”
Several civil society groups in Romania immediately filed a petition calling for the election to be invalidated, and the Supreme Court granted those requests on Friday. The court said it would invalidate “the entire electoral procedure regarding the Romanian presidential election” and set a new date for the election to start from scratch.
Georgescu's supporters shouted abuse. simion declared The court said the PSD was carrying out a “coup” to maintain its power and called on PSD supporters to express their disapproval without staging unruly protests that could be used as a pretext for repression.
“We will not take to the streets and we will not be provoked. This system must fall democratically!” Simion said.
“Nine politically appointed judges decided to invalidate the Romanian's will, fearing that an outside candidate had every chance of becoming Romanian's president.” he said.
Lasconi too condemned The court's ruling said this was “illegal, immoral, and subversive of the very essence of democracy: voting.”
“We should have gone ahead with the vote. We should have respected the will of the Romanian people. Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate point of view, 9 million Romanian citizens (domestic) and diaspora) have expressed their preference for a particular candidate through voting. Their will cannot be ignored!” she declared.
“I know that I would have won, and I will win because the Romanian people know that I will fight for them and unite them for a better Romania. I will protect our democracy. I will not give up,” she said.
Following the publication of the intelligence report, Prime Minister Colak hailed the court's decision as “the only correct solution”.
“As a result of Russian interference, the vote of the Romanian people was severely distorted,” he said.
“The presidential election must be held again. At the same time, an investigation by authorities must reveal those responsible for this massive attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election.”
Georgescu himself has denied the investigation into his campaign as the work of George Soros. interview on Sky News on Thursday.
“I can tell you one thing: Soros' last stronghold has fallen. This man has made them hopeless,” he said.
Interestingly, as of late Friday morning, no major media outlet appeared to have asked Georgescu what he thought about the court case or informed readers of what he may have said online.
Mr. Georgescu's supporters appear determined to support him, and he could win re-election if enough Romanians agree with Mr. Simion's opinion that the Constitutional Court has staged a coup. Sex will probably be even bigger. As of Friday morning, there appeared to be no discussion of banning Georgescu from running again.
