George Simion, who lost the Romanian presidential elections to Nicusor Dan on May 18, announced a legal challenge of the result at the Constitutional Court. Simion lost 46.4% to 53.6%, after leading with 20 points until the last week before Sunday’s vote. Simion accused France and Moldavia of interference and vote manipulation. “I officially ask the Constitutional Court to declare the elections null and void” for the same reasons that led to the cancellation of the result of the November elections: “Foreign interference,” he wrote on X. Moldavia and France “have bought votes,” and added that “dead people voted in the May 18 runoff.”
That day, Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed that the French government had asked him to ban opposition voices in Romania. “This spring at the Salon des Batailles in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections,” Durov wrote on X. “I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe.”
On May 18, displaying a baguette, he tweeted: “A Western European government (guess which 🥖) approached Telegram, asking us to silence conservative voices in Romania ahead of today’s presidential elections. I flatly refused. Telegram will not restrict the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels.”
He replied to his post: “You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t “fight election interference” by interfering with elections. You either have freedom of speech and fair elections — or you don’t. And the Romanian people deserve both.”
Durov wrote on May 21 that he is ready to testify in court to help Simion’s challenge.
Durov, a French citizen, was detained at the Le Bourget airport and interrogated for several days in 2024, before being released on $5.6 million bail.
The winner of the May 18 runoff, Nicusor Dan, was trained at the Sorbonne in Paris. France has a large financial, economic and military presence in Romania. Société Générale owns the third largest bank by assets, BRD, and BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole are also present. Renault owns the Dacia production sites, possibly the largest private employer in the country; Orange controls the telecom market, and Carrefour is one of the top retailers.
Militarily, Romania is key for a European war against Russia. France has the majority of troops in the Cincu NATO battle group, and according to Andrew Korybko, the recent 3D mapping of Romania’s “Focsani Gate” near its border with Moldova and Ukraine is functional to enable French forces in Romania to swiftly advance toward the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Izmail on the Danube, should France decide to enter the conflict.
