A little-known far-right populist won Romania’s presidential election Sunday, election data shows, and will face left-wing Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in a runoff in two weeks.
Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate, topped the polls with almost 22% of the vote after almost 93% of the votes were counted, while Ciolacu, from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), was behind with 21%. Elena Lasconi, of the Union Save Romania (USR) party, was around 18%, and George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), was around 14%.
After the poll closed, 9.4 million people had voted, or around 52.4% of voters, according to the Central Electoral Office. The second round will take place on December 8.
The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making power in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments within the European Union and NATO member country.
Georgescu, 62, ran as an independent candidate and was not well known. He topped most local polls, shocking Romania’s political class and propelling him to first place.
After voting on Sunday, Georgescu said in a Facebook post that he had voted “for the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel they don’t count and who, in reality, are the ones who matter the most. .. the vote is a prayer for the nation.
Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, told The Associated Press that Georgescu’s unexpected election result appears to be “a big protest or revolt against the establishment.”
“The main political parties have lost all connection with ordinary Romanians,” he said. “There are no strong candidates and no strong leaders…there are weak candidates, weak leaders, and the parties in general are pretty disconnected.”
Georgescu has no program, Andrei said, and has a vague populist manifesto with positions that “go beyond normal discourse.” Their positions include supporting Romanian farmers, reducing dependence on imports and increasing energy and food production.
Georgescu called NATO’s anti-ballistic missile shield in the Romanian town of Deveselu a “disgrace of diplomacy.” He said the North Atlantic Alliance would not protect any of its members if they were attacked by Russia.
According to his website, Georgescu holds a doctorate in pedology, a branch of soil science, and held various positions in the Romanian Ministry of the Environment in the 1990s. Between 1999 and 2012, he was the representative of Romania to the United Nations national environment committee. Program.
In videos he posts to his popular TikTok account, where he has racked up 1.6 million likes, he appears attending church, practicing judo, running on an oval track and speaking on podcasts.
Romania shares a 650 km border with Ukraine and, since Russia attacked kyiv in 2022, it has allowed the export of millions of tonnes of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided aid military, including the donation of a Patriot air defense battery.
Towns bordering Ukraine witnessed a barrage of drones violating national airspace, although no casualties were reported.
A political commentator claimed that Russian interference to help Georgescu in the elections could not be ruled out. “Given Georgescu’s position towards Ukraine and the gap between the results of opinion polls and the actual results, we cannot rule out this possibility,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, professor of political science at Babes-Bolyai University.
Romania will also hold parliamentary elections on December 1, which will determine the country’s next government and prime minister.
