Romania Cancels Election Results After Far-Right Candidate Wins First Round, Cites Russian Interference

Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) voided the country’s first-round presidential election results after independent right-wing candidate Călin Georgescu delivered a shock election victory, citing Russian interference.

The Details: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified files from intelligence services that alleged Georgescu received unlawful foreign support. Georgescu won 23% of the vote, and would have run against centrist Elena Lasconi, who won 19%, in the second round runoff. Georgescu declared no political spending, and gained fast traction in recent weeks, largely off the back of a TikTok campaign that the CCR alleged Russia was behind. 

For Context: Politico (Lean Left bias) wrote that a month ago, Georgescu was “almost unheard of inside his own country, with no party backing and a low profile in traditional media.” It also noted that he has been “highly critical” of Romania’s involvement in NATO and the European Union, and “vowed” to end aid to Ukraine. ZeroHedge (Lean Right bias) wrote that the “vast majority” of Romanians “leans ultra-conservative.” Earlier this year, mainstream media reported that an airbase in southeastern Romania will become NATO’s biggest base in Europe.

Key Quotes: Georgescu said, “We shall continue in the democratic manner. I ask very clearly for peace, for all the things that we have to recuperate our democracy because democracy was cancelled with the court.” His opponent, Lasconi, condemned the court’s decision more harshly, saying, “Today is the moment when the Romanian state has trampled on democracy… It is not about me, the economy is collapsing, you are destroying democracy, you are leading the country into anarchy.”

Split Coverage: Politico emphasized how unknown Georgescu was in Romania, and how “25,000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts burst into action” two weeks before the election. ZeroHedge included a quote from Russia, which denied it interfered.