Romania woke up this Saturday in relative calm after the surprise of the historic decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania to annul the first round of the presidential elections of November 24, which the ultranationalist and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu won, just two days before the date. scheduled for the second round. “The freely expressed nature of the vote was violated by the fact that voters were misinformed through an electoral campaign in which one of the candidates [Georgescu] benefited from aggressive promotion, which was carried out with the evasion of national legislation in the electoral field and through the abusive exploitation of the algorithms of social media platforms,” announced the highest judicial authority to justify the decision. The Constitutional Court also appreciates alleged illegal financing by the winner, nicknamed the Messiah of TikTok, for spreading his message that he is a “servant of God” on the Chinese social network.
After the declassification of the documents presented by the secret services, which detail indications of a propaganda machine perfectly oiled on social networks to favor the extremist – 25,000 fake accounts were created on TikTok to promote his campaign – the judges understand that the electoral process “it was flawed” and they allege that the manipulation of the vote was evident, since “the electoral materials that promoted a candidate lacked specific electoral advertising posters.” They also highlight that Georgescu enjoyed preferential treatment on digital platforms, which distorted the will of voters, and breached electoral rules regarding campaign financing. Regarding this last matter, they assure that the statements that the candidate presented to the Permanent Electoral Authority about his campaign budget, which amounted to zero euros, contradict the data of the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Ministry of the Interior.
Precisely, the Directorate of Investigation of Economic Crimes and the Directorate of Fight against Organized Crime carried out three searches this Saturday morning in Brasov, a city two and a half hours from Bucharest, to obtain information about Bogdan Peschir, the alleged supporter who financed Georgescu’s TikTok campaign with one million euros. The Attorney General’s Office believes that this sum of money comes from money laundering.
This unprecedented twist of the script that has caused the judicial decision in the electoral process has surprised Romanian society. Many citizens who continue to sympathize with the traditional parties have received the news with relief because they consider the situation that the country has been going through for two weeks to be a horror, as well as the possibility of elevating an admirer of the Russian president, Vladimir, to the head of state. Putin, who advocates Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Many others, however, have disagreed with the court’s ruling. Among them, supporters of Elena Lasconi, a center-right mayor who should have contested the second round, as they believe she could have won the elections. Neither did the ultras who support Georgescu, nor those of the other far-right formation, Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), which was second favorite in last Sunday’s legislative elections.
Ludovic Orban, leader of the Right Force formation who expressed his support for Lasconi already from the first round, has stated that the magistrates “simply trampled on the will expressed by the Romanian citizens” and that, due to their decision, a decision has been reached. a situation in which “democracy practically no longer exists in Romania.”
For his part, President Klaus Iohannis, whose term expires on December 21, has tried again to reduce tension a day after confirming that he will remain at the helm until the new Government calls the presidential elections: “Following the latest events in Romania, I had an in-depth telephone conversation with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; “We have agreed that it is necessary to reinforce the security of social networks after the elections in our country,” Iohannis reported. Von der Leyen has stressed in a message on “better for his country, without foreign interference.”
The US State Department has expressed its support for the Romanian people and its confidence in democratic institutions and processes, as well as investigations into “malignant foreign influence.” Likewise, Washington has called for calm and respect for Romania’s constitutional order, “without threats of violence and intimidation.” However, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump, has criticized the court’s ruling on his X account: “Wow, look what is happening in Romania! The Constitutional Court has just annulled the first round of the presidential elections. Another Soros/Marxist attempt to falsify the result and deny the will of the people. She is going to lose and they know it” he wrote.
The leader of AUR, George Simion, has called on his supporters to attend a protest against the court’s ruling this Sunday at noon at the country’s polling stations. “Sooner or later we will have free elections!” Simion wrote on his Facebook account. This announcement represents a change of opinion in the ultra leader, as it comes after on Friday he urged his followers to “not respond to provocations” and not to demonstrate. The ultra party will also ask the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice to annul the ruling.
“Invalidating the first round two days before holding the second is aberrant; Romania has become the country of all possibilities,” exclaims Cristi Danilet, former judge and law professor at Petre Andrei University in Iasi. “Now numerous criminal files and new candidates for the presidency will emerge; “start again with this madness and empty promises,” adds the jurist. Danilet believes that the electoral authority was wrong to validate all the candidacies, but the Romanian Intelligence Service was also wrong for not notifying the Prosecutor General’s Office of a possible fraud, as well as the Constitutional Court, for ratifying the first round knowing that the Council Supreme Defense of the Country was going to bring together the secret services to report foreign interference.
For Cristian Pirvulescu, dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Bucharest, the Constitutional Court has defended democracy. “He has assumed his responsibilities to protect democratic principles. Equality between competitors and the legal framework were not respected.” In his opinion, the elections must be resumed in a climate of equity and transparency. “We must move forward and eliminate the candidacy of this impostor [Georgescu]since it was a flagrant interference by a state actor that influenced the electoral process, and this is not admissible in a democracy,” the political scientist stated.
While the main parties analyze the strategy to follow and negotiate the constitution of the next Executive resulting from the legislative elections of December 1, civil organizations are asking the pro-European political factions to agree on a single candidate against the extremist bloc, which does not stop to grow.
