Romanian prosecutors have indicted Călin Georgescu, who won the first round of Romania’s presidential election last year, which was canceled on suspicions of alleged Russian interference. He was picked up on Feb. 26 by prosecutors and questioned for the following offenses: actions against the constitutional order; communication of false information; continuous false declarations regarding the sources of financing of the electoral campaign; initiating or constituting a fascist, racist or xenophobic organization; promotion of the cult of persons guilty of committing crimes of genocide against humanity; initiating or constituting an anti-Semitic organization according to the Attorney General’s Office.
“Călin Georgescu was going to submit his new candidacy for the presidency. Approximately 30 minutes ago, the system stopped him in traffic and took him in for questioning at the General Prosecutor’s Office! Where is democracy, and where are the partners who should be defending it?” his communications team wrote on Facebook. Even if they still ask for the replay of the interrupted second round of elections, Călin Georgescu and his supporters organized the collection of the 200,000 signatures needed to qualify for the new election process, scheduled to occur on May 5 and 18. Georgescu is leading in the polls, credited with 31 to 45%, while the candidate of the ruling coalition is at around 25%.
The Romanian elections crisis was put into the spotlight by Vice President’s J.D. Vance Feb. 18 speech at the Munich Security Conference. Vance said in Munich, “when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. … [T]he situation has gotten so bad that, this December, Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.” (On the subject of the intelligence notes, EIR published an interview with lawyer Elena Radu.) Politico cites “MAGA heavyweights [who] lash out over Romanian police raids targeting Călin Georgescu.” Elon Musk wrote on X, “They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election. This is messed up.” He also reposted a message from the leader of the AUR party, George Simion, during a protest in front of the prosecutor’s office. “[Georgescu] was coming to AUR headquarters to make the filing for his candidacy [for] the president’s office. We raised 300,000 signatures for him,” Simion said on X. Several conservative influencers took up the subject, including Mario Nawfal, who interviewed the candidate after his release.
It is notable that, before canceling the presidential election on Dec. 6, 2024, the Constitutional Court on Oct. 5, 2024 had barred another anti-war nationalist candidate, Diana Sosoacă. In spite of her having gathered the necessary signatures to qualify for the presidential elections, her candidacy was canceled on the basis of opinion offenses “regarding the removal of essential guarantees of the fundamental values and options of the state, namely the status of a member state of the EU and NATO,” wrote the Constitutional Court. In this context, doubts are being raised as to whether the Constitutional Court will validate the candidacy of Georgescu.
In the meantime, after the cancellation of the 2024 presidential election, Romania was downgraded to the status of “hybrid regime” in The Economist's democracy index.
