Pro-Russian ultranationalist says it will appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court, but probability of decision being reversed “is very low”. Given the criminal accusations he faces, “invalidation was the only viable option,” says one analyst from Bucharest. Even so, “it will take a lot of time to rebuild public trust in institutions”
It is the latest chapter of the political crisis that snapped in Romania four months ago, when the presidential elections were. On Sunday, the Central Electoral Commission (CCE) rejected the new candidacy of the Ultranationalist Cilin Georgescu, who had won the first annulled lap. In a few hours, supporters of the pro-Russian candidate focused on the center of Bucharest in a protest that culminated in clashes with security forces.
“If democracy in Romania falls, the whole democratic world will fall! This is just the beginning. It’s very simple! Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny! ”Reacted Georgescu on the social network.“ This is crazy! ”He shot shortly after Elon Musk, owner of X and member of Donald Trump’s government. A month ago, Trump’s deputy JD Vance had already used the crisis in Romania to attack the European project – when, in an inflamed speech at the Munich security conference, he claimed that the presidential were nullified under “fragile and huge pressure from their continental neighbors.”
No one is already minimizing the importance of Romania, a country with 19 million inhabitants and a border shared with Ukraine, which belongs to the European Union (EU) and NATO. “It is evident that Romania is currently a battlefield where external forces have as their main objective social destabilization,” CNN tells the political consultant ADI Zábavão. In a moment of great turbulence and change in transatlantic relations, with the US are under a leadership that continues to the detriment of Russia by Vladimir Putin, “this does not only apply to Romania, but to the EU as a whole.”
For critics, the decision to ban Georgescu on the next elections, with the first lap scheduled for May 4, is just another proof of how “the system” is conspiring against young people populist and nationalist parties that threaten old parties-including POT, which supports Georgescu, a newly formed by a residential of the Romanian covenant (ARD, the candidate, to which the candidate was. previously connected).
These include not only the Almighty Musk, but also political figures such as Matteo Salvini, vice-master-minister of Italy, the Extremist Liga party, who in the social network X denounced what he considers to be “a European coup to the Soviet-style”, in which “citizens are being stolen from the right to vote through this serious robbery of democracy”.
Famous for his incendiary rhetoric, which sometimes contrasts with the positions of the Italian head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, Salvini took the cue to criticize the European Commission’s plan to “rear Europe,” which Ursula von de Leyen to make the EU independent in matters of security and defense against the Russian threat and the removal of US support to Ukraine (“an invented state”).
“First they cancel the elections that are, then arrest candidates and, finally, prevent us from competing for being afraid of losing,” Meloni’s deputy said in the musk social network. “We need to refound Europe to protect democracy instead of ‘rearm’.”
“The fact that points of view similar to those of some US figures are also present in the Italian government is not surprising, taking into account the composition of this government,” says Zábavão. “I do not think there are similar opinions in other pro-European Romanian parties, or at least among their main figures.”
It is unlikely that Romania’s constitutional court reverses the decision of the electoral authorities, which was based on the same arguments used by the high instance to nullify the presidential presidential; Next elections will take place on May 4 and 18 Photo: Nicolae Dumitrache/AP
Accusations are serious
Perhaps not among the main figures, but internal criticism came not only from parties that support Georgescu. “The fight against Cilin Georgescu can only happen in the form of a free dispute in the elections, and not as a conspiracy of parties in power to prevent the admission of an inconvenient candidate,” said former Romanian Minister of the Economy, Claudiu Nasui, current liberal deputy of the right -wing party for the salvation of Romania – for which Elena Lasconi won second place in the first lap of the presidential background.
Against the skeptics who speak of theft and tyranny arise for Figures and Pro-Ue, Bucarest, Brussels, and in other capital, who have no doubt that the ultranationalist victory in the annulled presidentialists was due to a classic to influence another European referendum, helping to catapult a relative unknown to the first place-which should not be authorized to recallers.
“What we saw in Romania were long-dormant social networking accounts, which had been created for years, activated, unlavings, but used to affect the result,” said James Appathurai, the Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Hybrid War, a month ago, talking about many “micro-influencing” who received money to support Georgescu on their publications on the heads on the head.
“Vance was right when he stated that the court considered that ‘Russian misinformation infected the Romanian elections’-but if the elections were ‘infected’ by Russian trolls in a country, should the results be validated regardless of the laws of a Member State?” Romania faces.
Arrested at the end of February for interrogation, Georgescu has already been formally accused of inciting unconstitutional actions and fake statements about the finances of his election campaign. This criminal investigation hits not only about it, but about several associates, including your bodyguard and-and this “adds more weight to the case,” says Adi Zábavão.
As appointed by the Electoral Commission on Sunday night, in a four -page statement to substantiate his decision, Georgescu’s candidacy was prohibited because “it does not comply with the conditions of legality, expressed in the disrespect for electoral procedures, as well as violating the obligation to protect democracy”.
“The accusations that are imputed to it are serious and cannot be ignored when validating an application,” says Romanian political analyst to CNN. “Criminal investigation cannot be completed within such a short term with a conviction that it legally prevents Georgescu from holding public office and, therefore, from applying – which suggests that the invalidation of your candidacy is the only viable option. I cannot issue a legal opinion, but it is evident that everything Georgescu defends and intends to achieve Romani democracy and the state as we know them, circumstances that, in my opinion, justify the invalidation of their candidacy. ”
Actions will have consequences
After a night of riots and clashes between the security forces and their supporters in Bucharest, following several weeks of popular concentrations in their favor, Georgescu made known that it will take the case to the Constitutional Court, similar to what they had done with the annulment of November presidential presidentials. But as Ado Zábavão points out, “the probability that the Constitutional Court reverse the decision is very low, especially given that the Electoral Commission based its decision on the arguments used by the TC when it annulled the November elections.”
The situation in Bucharest, however, seems to have calmed. “The protests of the last night, were marginal and involved a small number of people,” says the analyst from the Romanian capital. “There is no widespread public disorder that can quickly become large-scale protests, I doubt it reaches this point. The general population, even if it could be inclined to vote for Georgescu, may not welcome violent manifestations. ”
It is unlikely that Georgescu will be allowed to run for president in May, everything that has happened since November has discovered something that many, inside and outside Romania, including neutral observers, have underline: even though there has been Russian interference in favor of the Ultranationalist, their victory also translates the discontent of a part of the electorate, which is disillusioned with the political classes.
As referred to CNN in November the same Romanian political analyst, Georgescu’s first victory “cannot be exclusively attributed to Kremlin coordinated operations or other internal or external actors”, it also has “origin in chronic social dissatisfaction and a widespread lack of confidence in the current political class”, especially in view of phenomena that have increased social tensions such as pandemic, war in Ukraine and inflation.
Now, with Romania appearing as a stage of excellence for disputes that oppose the EU to Russia, where the NATO has installed an important base that is being transformed into the largest alliance on European soil, the lead of Georgescu’s candidacy, even if valid, promises to reinforce these tensions.
“When elections are annulled in a democracy or when the candidacy of someone who previously obtained two million votes is invalidated, it is evident that such actions will have consequences,” admits ADI Zábav. “Critical situations require extreme measures, and the Romanian state is in a struggle to keep the country on a pro-European and pro-democratic way. But it will take a lot of time to rebuild public trust in institutions. ”
