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A pro-Kremlin politician has been barredfrom standing in a rerun of presidential elections in Romania after the right-wing populistunexpectedly won the first round.
Calin Georgescu, an inveterate critic of Nato, became a cause célèbre when his unexpected victory in November was overturned by the courts on the basis that he had been boosted by Russian interference.
Running as an independent but aligned with the country’s main hard-right party, Georgescu holds a commanding lead in the polls, with about 40 per cent of the vote, and is backed by figures in the Trump administration.
However, the national election authority ruled on Sunday night that his candidacy was invalid, prompting skirmishes between police and about 300 of his supporters outside the institution’s office.
Georgescu had been running as an independent but was aligned with the country’s main hard-right party
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP
The electoral commission gave no reason for its decision. However, Georgescu is under criminal investigation on suspicion of various offences ranging from membership of a fascist organisation to providing false information about his campaign’s finances.
The other counts include attempting to instigate “actions against the constitutional order”.
Georgescu denies wrongdoing.
“A direct blow to the heart of democracy worldwide!” he posted on X after the announcement. “I have one message left: if democracy in Romania falls, the entire democratic world will fall … Europe is now a dictatorship; Romania is under tyranny!”
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The case has drawn close attention in the United States as an illustration of what some members of President Trump’s coterie characterise as Europe’s undemocratic suppression of right-wing politics.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, crusaded on Georgescu’s behalf in his notorious denunciation of European liberal democracies at the Munich Security Conference last month.
Responding to Georgescu’s disqualification, Elon Musk, the multibillionaire owner of X and head of Trump’s budget-cutting agency, wrote: “This is crazy.”
An anti-government rally was held in Bucharest, the country’s capital, on March 1
GETTY IMAGES
Police in Bucharest said Georgescu’s followers had briefly broken through a cordon of officers around the electoral commission’s headquarters but the situation was contained shortly afterwards. Demonstrators shouted “Thieves!”, “Traitors!” and “Freedom”, with some throwing rocks.
The populist denies having any connection to the Russian regime and has cast the annulment of his first-round victory as a “formalised coup d’état”. In recent weeks tens of thousands of people have demonstrated in support of his cause.
Elections were rescheduled for May this year.
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