Romania’s Central Electoral Office (BEC) has rejected on Sunday the candidacy of the ultra -nationalist Calin Georgescu to the presidential elections, which will be held in two laps next May 4 and 18. These are repeated elections, after the Constitutional Court annulled the first round – given by Georgescu – of the elections last November, by suspicions of illegal financing.
The Constitutional, who decided to cancel those elections claiming that the Kremlin had promoted the Ultra candidate campaign through viral videos in the Tiktok social network, must now corroborate or reject the decision of the maximum electoral body. After the verdict of the BEC there is a 24 -hour period to present an appeal, and then the Constitutional Court has another 48 hours to pronounce, so the final decision will occur, as afternoon, Wednesday night. The Central Electoral Office has approved, on the contrary, the candidacy of the current mayor of Bucharest, the liberal Dan Nicusor, and must resolve in the next few hours the resources against Crin Antonescu, candidate of the current Proeuropean government coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Hungarian minority (UDMR).
Georgescu, who considers that the images of the arrival of man to the moon in 1969 are false and admire fascist figures of the 30s, has promised to end Ukraine. In the elections of the past fall, the main political formations and a large part of the population were stunned when it achieved 23% of the votes, proclaiming winner of the first round. His irruption has divided even more to Romanians. The traditional parties – historically beaten by numerous corruption scandals – supported the decision of the constitutional, but both the populist right – found above all by the Alliance Formation for the Union of Romanians (Aur) – as many citizens fed up with politicians.
Since then, numerous manifestations have been convened in their favor, despite the information that has been known about ideas and bizarre proposals of the “Tiktok Messiah”, as the only medicine that cures is God. In addition, on February 26, the Police assaulted in the street the car where he was supposed to present his presidential candidacy, to transfer him to an interrogation before the Prosecutor’s Office ,. A few hours later he was released as a martyr before his supporters, and four days later he organized a protest to which some 30,000 people came from all parts of the country.
To further suck the situation, hours after their arrest and in the early morning, prosecutors allowed the influencer Misoginence Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan will fly to the United States. Small followers of Trump, are being investigated in Romania for alleged violation and traffic of people. The reasons for having revoked their prohibition of leaving the country are still unknown.
Trump administration support
Polarization is also reflected in the usual foreign partners of Romania. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, denounced foreign interference and showed her support to Romanian justice, in clear contrast to the administration of Donald Trump. Both the United States vice president, JD Vance, and Magnate Elon Musk have lashed out several times against the Romanian authorities and have criticized that the triumph of the extremist candidate was annulled.
In mid -February, in his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vance minimized the possible Russian interference in the Romanian elections and reproached that, “if a democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars in foreign advertising, that democracy was never very strong.” For its part, Musk has been involved in favor of Georgescu several times. “Romania deserves his own sovereignty,” he wrote in his X account, accompanying his message with the Romanian flag and retweeting a message from the ultra candidate that promised to prohibit “the network of (George) Soros” in the country if he reached the presidency. This same Sunday, Musk has published another tweet in which he echoes the news of the cancellation of Georgescu’s candidacy and exclaims: “This is crazy!”
In this way, the United States coincides with the criticisms of the Intelligence Service of Russia (SVR), which described Georgescu last Tuesday as a victim of the “European totalitarian elite-liberal.” Bucharest’s reaction came immediately: the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced the next day the expulsion of the Russian military aggregate and its attachment, noting that both “have carried out activities that contravene the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.” The Russian embassy described the decision as “unfounded and hostile and announced that the right to” reprisals. ” Precisely, the name of one of the two Russian diplomats appears in the investigation that is being carried out on Georgescu for illegal financing of its campaign – zero euros in promotion -, for allegedly creating a fascist group and for attacking the constitutional order.
Research for an alleged conspiracy
Last Thursday, the Directorate of Research of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DiCot) revealed the arrest of six alleged members of a group that allegedly planned against the constitutional order and whose objective was to take out the country from NATO. This organization, which had a military part, intended to prohibit political parties, replace the democratically chosen government and dismiss public employees, in addition to changing the Constitution, the name, anthem and flag of the country. According to the media, the group’s representative before public opinion would be Radu Theodoru, a 101 -year -old retired general who exercised as a military during the communist dictatorship and who is the author of books in which the Jewish holocaust denies and defends positions against the Jews.
Theodoru is being investigated but is not counted among those arrested. Two of the group members, qualified by the DIICOT as a criminal organization, repeatedly contacted officials of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to seek support. This is one of the reasons why two Russian diplomats were expressed, also accused of carrying out “intelligence collection actions in strategic interest zones and to support the group’s anti -constitutional initiatives”, according to the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI).
Several surveys have pointed out that Georgescu has an advantage in voting intention of up to 40%. However, Remus Stefureac, who runs the democopic company, believes that this result would not give him the guarantee of winning the second round on May 18. In October, the court disqualified another proputin candidate, the controversial Eurodiputada Diana Sosoaca, noting that her statements threatened Romania’s statute in the EU and NATO as a member. Last month, prosecutors opened a criminal process against Georgescu for unconstitutional acts and false campaign financing statement, which he denies.
