Romania woke up this Monday shocked by the electoral victory of a candidate close to the Kremlin, with prominent anti-Semitic and anti-Western proclamations. Calin Georgescu, 62, the pro-Russian supporter who sympathizes with the Nazi-allied Romanian legionnaires of the interwar period, claimed victory in the first round of the presidential election with 23.94%—more than 2,117,000. votes—after 99.5% of the votes counted. But achieving the head of state will not be so easy. On December 8, she will face Elena Lasconi, 52, a center-right journalist and mayor of the city of Campulung, a town of 27,000 inhabitants, located 150 kilometers from Bucharest, in the second round. On Monday morning, Lasconi managed to snatch second position from the poll favorite, Marcel Ciolacu, social democratic candidate and prime minister. It will be the first time in 35 years that the Social Democratic Party does not contest the second round of the presidential elections.
Elena Lasconi took second place, with 19.7% of the votes. But until early Monday morning, the partial results gave that place to Marcel Ciolacu, for whom the polls had wrongly predicted a clear victory. Finally, Lasconi reaped two tenths of a percentage point more than the prime minister’s 19.5%.
After learning that Lasconi would contest the second round, his campaign team warned through a video: “Joy comes with a ‘shock’ for millions of Romanians.” And he added: “[Calin Georgescu es] “a candidate who has the face of Vladimir Putin, wants us to leave the EU, has fascist and anti-Semitic theories.” The campaign team stressed that Lasconi will take this danger seriously.
Voters in the sixth largest state in the European Union in terms of population – some 19 million inhabitants – have shifted in recent years towards nationalist formations, as has never happened since the fall of communism almost 35 years ago.
Georgescu, a fervently religious and nationalist who called the result “an amazing awakening” of the Romanian people, ran an intense campaign on the social network TikTok, calling on Romania to reduce imports, support farmers and increase domestic production of food and energy.
Criticism of NATO and the US
The pro-Russian candidate argues that the EU and NATO do not adequately represent Romanian interests and affirmed that Russia’s war in Ukraine, a country with which it shares 650 kilometers of land border, is manipulated by American military companies. He has praised Russian culture and described President Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country.” He also admires the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, because he assures that he knows how to negotiate at the international level.
Russian state press agencies celebrated the result of the winner of the first round. The TASS agency highlighted that Georgescu “is reserved about Romania’s membership in NATO and has prudently pushed for normalization.” [de relaciones] with Russia”, while Ria Novosti, another Russian agency, indicated that he is a candidate aligned with Moscow.
As soon as he became aware of the exit polls that gave him third place at that time, Georgescu declared: “It is a surprising awakening of conscience.” Then, the surprise came for himself and for a good part of society. The candidate considered pro-Russian stressed that “the Romanian people, when alone, will win.” Georgescu has an anti-European and nationalist discourse and rejects that there may be foreign companies in the country that exploit Romanian resources, the same type of message that the communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, spread.
Lasconi is mayor of Campulung, a small city located 150 kilometers from Bucharest, when she thought that the second round would be held with the prime minister, the social democrat Marcel Ciolacu, she asked to be vigilant: “Great attention in all the polling stations, every vote counts . “It is essential to stay there and defend the votes of the Romanians.”
