Romania in shock

Putin admirer in the lead in presidential election

Calin Georgescu

(Bild: Associated Press)

In Romania, politicians, pollsters and broad sections of society are in shock after the presidential election: the little-known extremist and anti-Semitic Calin Georgescu was in the lead with 22.5 percent after 98 percent of the ballots were counted on Monday night.

The incumbent Prime Minister and presidential candidate of the ruling post-communist party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, came in second with 19.7 percent and will enter the run-off on December 8.

Marcel Ciolacu

(Bild: APA/AFP)

Little hope for third-placed candidate
According to the partial results, the presidential candidate of the reform party USR, Elena Lasconi, was able to win 18.7 percent of the vote, although she could theoretically still win more thanks to the votes of Romanians abroad. However, the majority of Romanian pollsters consider it unlikely that the reformist politician will be able to make up the difference to Ciolacu and force him out of the final round of the presidential race.

Sociologists speak of protest vote
In live broadcasts and election analyses, Romanian sociologists spoke of an angry vote by Romanian citizens - the election result was a clear protest by the electorate against the party system in general and the two governing parties PSD and Liberals (PNL) in particular, who were responsible for the constantly high inflation (five percent) and increasing impoverishment of the people.

Calin Georgescu

(Bild: APA/Associated Press)

Georgescu campaigned on social media
Georgescu, who has no party affiliation, has de facto emerged from nowhere, has no political party behind him and has always operated "under the radar" during the election campaign, or rather has campaigned for votes almost exclusively via social networks, above all TikTok, using influencers, podcasts and videos, according to the tenor. Romanian political analysts are puzzling over whether Georgescu's sudden rise is due to the "stupidity" of the electorate or to targeted interference by Russia, particularly on social networks, in favour of the declared Putin admirer - and see the country at a crossroads in a completely unexpected way.

On the evening of the election, Georgescu said at a press conference broadcast via Facebook that the Romanian people had "awoken to consciousness" and expressed their will to "no longer remain on their knees, no longer under invasion, no longer humiliated". Economic insecurity had led to this vote. "Tonight, the Romanian people shouted 'peace'," Georgescu added - presumably with a view to Russia's war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine. The fourth-placed candidate George Simion from the far-right parliamentary party AUR, who was eliminated with 14% of the vote, announced that he would support Georgescu in the run-off.

Georgescu had himself filmed while voting for a social media post:

Extremist, anti-Semite, Putin admirer
Calin Georgescu, an agronomist by training, was initially briefly in the spotlight in 2022 when the right-wing nationalist AUR offered him the position of honorary chairman of the party. However, AUR leader George Simion fell out with the 62-year-old shortly afterwards after Georgescu's slogans proved to be too radical even for AUR right-wing populists - Georgescu had caused an unprecedented scandal by singing the praises of the main perpetrators of the Romanian Holocaust, Marshal Ion Antonescu and the leader of the fascist "Iron Guard" Corneliu Zelea-Codreanu. The Public Prosecutor General's Office subsequently launched a criminal investigation against him.

Georgescu relies on mystical-religious rhetoric, whereby he does not consider himself to be a "candidate", but rather a "called one". "One for all and all for God", he said in one of his election campaign podcasts. He is considered radically extremist and anti-Semitic, holds anti-NATO views and is a great admirer of Putin.

17 polling stations set up in Austria
The almost 19,000 polling stations in the country opened at 06:00 CET and closed at 20:00 CET. Abroad, the Romanian authorities had 950 polling stations set up this time, including 17 in Austria - six in Vienna, two each in Salzburg, Graz and Linz and one each in Eisenstadt, St. Pölten, Bregenz, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt.

As Romania is a semi-presidential republic, the head of state has significant political powers. According to the Romanian constitution, the authority to issue directives on foreign and defense policy lies with the President of the Republic, who is also the supreme commander of the army and heads the country's Defense Council. The President also represents Romania at EU level and at European Council summits, as well as in international law. He is regarded as the guarantor of the country's independence, the rule of law and, in the event of political or social tensions, as a mediator between the authorities and society.