On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the first round of elections to choose the new head of state, held 15 days ago
Portuguese diplomacy expressed concern on Saturday about reports of Russian interference in Romania’s presidential elections, promising to work with Bucharest in defending common values.
On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the first round of elections to choose the new head of state, held 15 days ago, after investigations into illegal campaign financing and suspicions of Russian interference in the electoral process.
“We are following with concern the report of a Russian hybrid campaign targeting the presidential elections in Romania. Free elections are an essential pillar of democracies. We will continue to work with Romania, the EU and NATO in defense of our common values”, wrote the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs this Saturday, in a message on the social network X.
The decision by Romania’s Constitutional Court was made following the release of intelligence documents suggesting that one of the candidates benefited from a mass influence operation — conducted from abroad and suspected to be controlled by Moscow — to interfere with the outcome of the election. .
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of being behind a “large-scale and well-funded effort” to influence the elections in Romania, a member of the European Union (EU) and the BORN.
