Romania: Right-wing extremist enters runoff election for president

The pro-Russian right-wing extremist Calin Georgescu has surprisingly entered the runoff election for the office of head of state in the NATO country Romania. The non-party populist attracted attention with his anti-Western positions and cult for the Romanian fascists from the time of the Second World War. Georgescu was largely ignored by his competitors and the traditional media, but he is very successful on the online platform Tiktok. In the first round of voting he finished ahead of second-placed Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party. The decision between the two will now be made on December 8th – a week after the general election.

The easternmost EU member state, Romania, has around 19 million inhabitants, is considered one of the poorest countries in Europe and borders Ukraine in the north, which has been resisting a Russian invasion for almost three years.

On election night, Georgescu said in a press conference broadcast via Facebook that the Romanian people had “awakened to consciousness” and expressed their will “not to remain on their knees, not to be invaded, not to be humiliated.” Economic uncertainty led to this vote. “Tonight the Romanian people shouted ‘peace’,” added Georgescu – probably with a view to Russia’s war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine.

According to the Central Election Office, the extremist received around 22 percent of the vote in the first round of voting, while Ciolacu only got around 20 percent. The separately reported votes of Romanians living abroad are not taken into account, where Georgescu’s share is almost twice as high.

The candidate George Simion from the right-wing extremist parliamentary party AUR, who was eliminated in fourth place with 14 percent of the vote, announced that he would support Georgescu in the runoff election. The candidate from the conservative-liberal Reform Party, Elena Lasconi, took third place with almost 19 percent. She has not yet spoken out in favor of any of the remaining candidates.

There was a similar situation in the presidential election in 2000: At that time, the Social Democrat Ion Iliescu and the right-wing extremist Corneliu Vadim Tudor faced off in the runoff. The democratic parties came together and, thanks to strong support from European allies, were able to prevent an extremist from holding the highest state office.

In Romania, the president determines foreign and defense policy and is involved in controlling the secret services. He has more power than the German Federal President and less than the head of state in France. The performance of the candidates in the first round of the presidential election is also likely to influence the parliamentary election on December 1st.

The Romanian public prosecutor’s office is investigating Georgescu because of allegations of glorifying fascist war crimes, but according to the Romanian media, nothing is known about the progress of these investigations. Like the Romanian fascists known as “Legionnaires,” Georgescu often praises the Orthodox Church and uses Bible quotations. He was formerly a member of the extreme right-wing parliamentary party AUR, but resigned in the dispute.

The 62-year-old agricultural scientist and veterinary doctor primarily advertised himself on Tiktok. Commentators in Bucharest said on election night that traditional media and established politicians should be accused of not paying enough attention to Georgescu’s political propaganda on social media. Pollsters didn’t see his success coming either, and even post-election surveys on election night gave no indication of the result.