Călin Georgescu worships Putin and grabs power in Romania

With his arms outstretched and wearing a traditional shirt, he rides across the Romanian fields. He sits firmly in the saddle on his white horse. Before the Romanian presidential election last Sunday, Călin Georgescu’s Tiktok videos were probably intended to conjure up mystical ideas of a God-sent leader for the nation and fatherland – and their imagery was reminiscent of Vladimir Putin, whom Georgescu repeatedly described as a great, wise leader. After all, he also liked to stage himself on a horse.

In any case, the man on the white horse caused a shock in Romania. Others call it: a political earthquake. The right-wing extremist Georgescu clearly won the first round of the presidential elections in Romania. The non-party got 23 percent, the candidate from the liberal Union Save Romania (USR), Elena Lasconi, came second with around 20 percent. The incumbent Prime Minister and head of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, who was considered a future president in all polls, came a distant third.

What had happened there? Apparently pollsters had not taken the impact of social media into account – and thus did the math without Georgescu, who had moved his election campaign almost entirely online.

The career of the now 62-year-old is just as unorthodox as his election campaign. Georgescu had once studied agriculture, then attended a military academy, and finally worked for the UN and for the Romanian government as a consultant on environmental and food issues. He wanted to revolutionize global food production with his work and was convinced that he would one day receive the Nobel Prize for this.

But in 2020 there would be change. He joined the right-wing populist AUR party and declared the former dictator Ion Antonescu and the head of the anti-Semitic “Iron Guard”, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, as his heroes, through whom he “experiences national history”. Because of such statements, a case of sedition was initiated against him two years later, but this came to nothing.

Georgescu is considered extremely religious and nationalistic. Politically, he positions himself against NATO and the EU – and on the side of Vladimir Putin. He sees the Kremlin chief as a “leader type” who loves his country and will defend it using “whatever means.” Romania, on the other hand, is just “a colony, a supplier of raw materials and labor.” The government in Bucharest has become a “supplicant in Brussels or Washington” and the “submissiveness of the current leaders” especially towards the USA disgusts him. He does not blame Moscow for the Russian attack on Romania’s neighboring country Ukraine – but rather the interests of American arms companies. Putin shows that he loves his country, Georgescu said, adding that Romania could use some Russian wisdom.

Romania has always been one of the more skeptical of Moscow among Europe’s former communist states, but Georgescu’s enthusiasm for Putin does not appear to have bothered his voters.

He represents his positions, which are unconventional even in Romania, using equally unconventional means. He did not take part in any major TV debates, was not supported by any party and, according to his own statements, did not spend any money on his campaign. Instead, he said, “We are in God’s hands.” Since he didn’t have his own campaign headquarters, reporters waited outside his house after his surprise victory on Sunday. He broadcast his press conference via Facebook. There he spoke of an “awakening” of the Romanian people.

Similar to other right-wing politicians in Europe, such as French Marine Le Pen protégé Jordan Bardella or Nigel Farage in Great Britain, Georgescu’s success can be explained primarily by his appearance on Tiktok. He only uploaded his first video around two years ago and has been using the platform for his political messages ever since. In the simply produced videos, which these days often receive several million views, he postulates clear statements with keywords, and there is music in the background.

The traditional media largely ignored him. He recently said in a video that the Internet is the only place where you can freely express your opinions. He often presents several videos per day to his approximately 400,000 followers. Most of these are excerpts from conversations or discussions that are accompanied by colorful subtitles and smileys. In this way, he brings his theses for more national pride and less allegiance to the USA to young people.

Nevertheless, the success cannot only be explained by the young voters on Tiktok. The journalist Ioana Ene Dogioiu also explains the triumph with the pronounced illiteracy in large parts of the population – and with Georgescu’s approach to mystify one’s own history.

He was also able to win over the Romanian diaspora, especially in Germany. Of the approximately 150,000 eligible voters in this country, 58 percent voted for the outsider. He was also able to attract around half of the votes of Romanians abroad in Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The narrative that Romania was exploited by evil foreigners seems to have a particular impact on the diaspora, among people who have poorly paid jobs abroad and imagine a dream home.

Romanian social media experts suspect that Russian help could also be behind Georgescu’s surprising success in order to destabilize Romania, which has so far been clearly pro-Western. During the election campaign, accounts with bot-like behavior were active in the comment columns of his videos on YouTube, Facebook and Tiktok and also attacked his opponents there.

Romania is considered one of the poorest countries in Europe and borders Ukraine to the north. If Georgescu wins the runoff election on December 8th, it could also radically change Romania’s foreign policy. In addition to Viktor Orbán, the EU would then have another ruler in southeastern Europe who sees less of an enemy in Moscow than in Brussels.