On Friday, thousands of Romanians gathered outside Bucharest's parliament building, which also houses the Constitutional Court, to protest the court's decision to annul November's presidential election.
Outsider populist Karin Georgescu was the unruly leader in the election, but a court invalidated the entire vote over alleged Russian interference.
Georgescu, always explained He was described by international media as a “far-right populist” and shocked Romanian political circles. roar It ranked first in pre-election polls. His success was all the more remarkable because his campaign spent little money on advertising. In fact, he claimed he had not spent anything.
Mr. Georgisk is running as an admirer of US President-elect Donald Trump, a skeptic of funding to Ukraine, an economic nationalist, a Christian conservative, and a very vocal critic of left-wing billionaire George Soros. and built a huge following on social media. Opinion polls show he enjoys high support among religious conservatives and citizens dissatisfied with the Romanian government's abysmal corruption.
One of the main criticisms raised against Georgescu is that he spoke I'm so impressed He praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country,” but claimed he disagreed with Putin's policies.
Georgescu, who had been treated as a fringe candidate by the Romanian media, suddenly rose to the top of opinion polls and later won the first round of the presidential election with 23% of the vote. Political analysts had confidently predicted that he would lose badly in the second round as lower-ranking candidates dropped out and the anti-Georgescu vote solidified around a single winner – but suddenly… He took a seemingly insurmountable lead in the second round.
A week before the second round of voting, declassified Romanian intelligence documents were released accusing Georgescu of profiting from 25,000 fake TikTok accounts created by a Russian disinformation campaign. The document also claims that Russia disrupted Romania's electoral system in a massive cyber attack.
Romania's top prosecutor announced that the allegations would be investigated as “election crimes,” and two days before the vote, the Constitutional Court invalidated the entire election. Furious Georgescu supporters flooded the streets, complaining about a stolen election and a rigged system. they are returned They took part in Friday's protest, waving Romanian flags and chanting: “We voted and you stole from us…Give us back round two.”
Demonstrators too claimed President Klaus Iohannis's government was illegitimate because it was supposed to end on December 22nd after the election. Some marchers called for Iohannis' arrest and denounced government officials as “traitors.”
Georgescu himself did not attend the protest, but sent a video message to his supporters calling on the Constitutional Court to “urgently reconsider the decisions that have plunged Romania into chaos.”
Georgescu did not participate in the march. Because he was on his way “to the heart of Europe, to the Supreme Court.” put it downto file a legal challenge against the “great institutions of Europe” that supported the annulment of the election. Perhaps he is talking about the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
The protests came at the same time that Georgescu's lawyers formally applied to the Supreme Court to overturn the invalidation decision. A similar request was made by fellow populist candidate George Simion, who finished a disappointing fourth in the election after Georgescu's meteoric rise.
“We have been living in a dictatorship since December 6th. We are here to defend democracy,” Simion, who participated in the protests in Bucharest, told reporters.
“I am with Romanians, not with individuals. We do not support Mr. Georgescu. I wonder why Mrs. Lasconi is not here,” the statement said. He mentioned former journalist and mayor Elena Lasconi, who came in second place in the election.
Rasconi criticized the election's annulment, saying the court had “trampled on democracy” with its “illegal and immoral” ruling. she said He plans to run again on Wednesday, despite intense pressure from the current ruling coalition to drop whoever the party's agreed-upon candidate is and clear the way. The coalition government is currently struggling to find candidates.
Several journalists said they had been harassed and had trash thrown at them by demonstrators, prompting a police response and saying “acts of aggression and intimidation” would be investigated and punished.
New elections held in Romania scheduled Voting date is May 4th, with a run-off election to be held on May 18th if necessary. Current opinion polls suggest that a majority of Romanians do not agree with the annulment of November's elections, so there is a good chance that Georgescu will win new votes. Mr Georgescu urged Romanians to sign a petition calling for a second run-off, which would have pitted him against Mr Lasconi, who finished second in November, rather than a new election from scratch. did.
