Protests Erupt in Romania as Leading Right-Wing Candidate Is Excluded From May Presidential Election

For a second time, Romania’s right-wing candidate for president has been tossed off the ballot, igniting protests around the country and increasing a crisis in a nation currently being run by an interim president. The Romanian Permanent Electoral Authority announced Sunday that it is rejecting independent Calin Georgescu’s candidacy. The commission did not give a reason, though said it would provide a statement soon. “A direct blow to the heart of democracy worldwide!” Mr. Georgescu wrote on his official X account after the announcement. “I have one message left! If democracy in Romania falls, the entire democratic world will fall! This is just the beginning. It’s that simple! Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!”Mr. Georgescu was disqualified from the second round of the presidential election in December after upsetting a field of candidates that included the sitting prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, of the Social Democratic Party. Two days before the vote, the commission said it was nullifying November’s first round results following allegations of Russian interference in Mr. Georgescu’s favor. Repeat elections were set for May 4 and 18. Polling shows Mr. Goergescu leading a pack of candidates at 37 percent in the first round, followed by Mayor Nicușor Dan of Bucharest. A separate poll showed similar support for Mr. Georgescu against the governing coalition candidate, Crin Antonescu. A 50 percent margin is needed to avoid a second round of voting.Mr. Georgescu has been involved in politics since the 1990s. A doctor of pedology, a branch of soil science, he served in Romania’s environment ministry and as a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program, according to his biography. He is a member of the Romanian Orthodox Church and has called Ukraine a “fictional state.” He has demanded that Romania gain energy independence and increase support for farmers. With growing rejection of European immigration and economic policies, Mr. Georgescu is among a group of right-wing leaders who have been critical of both the EU and NATO, both of which Romania is a member. Following his first disqualification, Vice President Vance and Billionaire Elon Musk both expressed support for Mr. Georgescu’s candidacy. Romania’s Foreign Minister, Emil Hurezeanu, suggested last month that backing by Mr. Musk and others on social media is “a form of interference in another state’s internal elections.” He added that due to Mr. Musk’s influence, “We must find our own means of defense, explanation, and context-setting.”In a post on X Sunday Mr. Musk called the expulsion “crazy.” With a Tik Tok following of more than 274,000 followers and 92.8 million views in the last two months, a Bucharest-based think tank, Expert Forum, told the AP that the explosive growth of social media accounts tied to Mr. Georgescu just before the November election “appears sudden and artificial, similar to his polling results.”“The most visible theme pushed by Calin Georgescu on TikTok in the last two months is peace, more precisely the need for Romania to stop supporting Ukraine in order not to involve Romania in war,” reads the forum’s report.On February 26, Mr. Georgescu was arrested and charged with election-related crimes. Supporters at the time said the arrests and disqualification were part of growing illiberalism in the country. Last week, Romanian authorities expelled two Russian diplomats, military attaché Victor Makovskiy and his deputy Evgeny Ignatiev, who were accused of foreign election interference tied to Mr. Georgescu’s campaign.Undeterred, Mr. Georgescu filed to run for office on Friday, the deadline for registration. The election authority had 48 hours to approve or deny him. He now has 24 hours to appeal and the commission will then have another 48 hours to reconsider. Supporters of the candidate say rejection of Mr. Georgescu’s candidacy is an attack on democracy. Banning Mr. Georgescu is a “Soviet-style euro coup,” the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, wrote on X. “First they annul — with the polls open — the elections he was winning, then they arrest him, then they even exclude him from the elections for fear that he will win. Rather than ‘rearm Europe’, here we must refound it to defend Democracy.”

Protests Erupt in Romania as Leading Right-Wing Candidate Is Excluded From May Presidential Election

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