Conor here: Unsurprisingly, US government mouthpiece Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty omits from the following piece the fact that the great Tik Tok campaign that first ignited the whole controversy around Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu was orchestrated by the political opposition. For more background on that sordid affair and why Georgescu is seen as such a threat, see here. Long story short, the EU and its Romanian underlings blamed it on Russia and nullified the Nov. 24 election. Now they’re using that lie to keep Georgescu off the rerun ballot.
Here’s some more background:
NATO is building the largest NATO military base in all of Europe in Romania, right on Romania’s Black Sea coast pointing at Crimea, the crux point of contest in the Russia-Ukraine war.
NATO feared the man who won Romania’s now-canceled election would cut or shut the base down. pic.twitter.com/esiy9hSGvP
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 17, 2024
Maps sometimes tell the story:
Why are the people of Romania not allowed to elect an anti-war president?
This map says it all, like Turkey and Greece, Romania is too important to NATO’s plan to contain Russia…. pic.twitter.com/cWiitJLB0H
— Richard (@ricwe123) December 6, 2024
From 2023, still germane:
Many Russian military analysts conclude that the West-backed Kiev Putsch regime’s continued maritime drone attacks even after Russian strikes destroyed Ukrainian ports on the Danube in Reni & Izmail, is that they are being constructed & launched out of NATO territory in Romania. pic.twitter.com/A49T1Ahjih
— Mark Sleboda (@MarkSleboda1) August 6, 2023
Some questions no longer seem all that outlandish:
EU is a geopolitical project. Romania is too important a piece on the chess board to allow to be free. This mask off moment started with “TikTok Russia meddling.”
Which Europe election will get OnlyFans Russia meddling?
November 27, 2024 👇 pic.twitter.com/RuBKmaZXvi— Alex Christoforou (@AXChristoforou) March 9, 2025
By RFE/RL’s Romanian Service. Originally published at RFE/RL.
Romania’s Central Electoral Board (CEB) rejected the candidacy of far-right politician Calin Georgescu from a rerun of a presidential election, sparking clashes between his supporters, angry at the move, and police.
The CEB said on March 9 that it disqualified Georgescu’s application based on the Constitutional Court ruling that halted the original election in November following his first-round win.
“His candidacy does not meet the conditions provided by law, as established by the Constitutional Court in December 2024,” the CEB said.
“Consequently, at the resumption of the electoral process, the members of the BEC consider that it is inadmissible to consider that the same person meets the conditions to accede to the Presidency of Romania.”
Georgescu, who is critical of NATO and opposes Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, filed his candidacy for the rerun, to be held on May 4, on March 7.
The CEB had 48 hours to accept or reject the application. Georgescu has 24 hours to appeal the CEB move, which prompted hundreds of his supporters who clashed with security forces in front of the Board’s headquarters in central Bucharest.
Pro-Georgescu demonstrators set fire to street furniture and heavy objects at police, who responded with tear gas, law enforcement officials said.
Georgescu and his supporters have claimed Romanian authorities are trying to block his candidacy in the rerun. He reacted angrily to the rejection, calling it “a direct blow to the heart of democracy.”
“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!” he added in a social media post.
The first round of the presidential election was canceled by the Constitutional Court on December 6 after Romanian intelligence reports said foreign actors had manipulated social-media platforms, especially TikTok, to benefit Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Russian candidate.
The annulment of the vote has exacerbated deep divisions in Romanian politics and sparked international concern over the course of democracy in the European Union and NATO member.
Last month, US Vice-President JD Vance made thinly veiled criticism of the country’s moves against Georgescu, telling delegates at the Munich Security Conference that “if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”
Georgescu was a little-known figure in Romania until he unexpectedly won the first round of the presidential election on November 24 with about 22 percent of the vote.
The 62-year-old was to face pro-European centrist candidate Elena Lasconi in a runoff, which had been seen as a referendum on the future course of Romania.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who supported the Constitutional Court’s decision to annul the election, said the authorities have the right to present the public with extremely solid evidence in the investigation, “which involves a potential candidate in the May elections.”
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on February 10 said he was resigning from his post amid an effort by the opposition to have him impeached after he stayed in power following the Constitutional Court’s election annulment.
Just days before the vote, Georgescu launched a TikTok campaign calling for an end to aid for Ukraine, apparently striking a chord with voters. He has also sounded a skeptical note on Romania’s NATO membership.
His anti-Western messaging is routinely amplified on Russian, state-run media and Kremlin-friendly social media.
His other stances included supporting Romanian farmers, reducing dependency on imports, and ramping up energy and food production.
Previously, we had
1) EU authorities trampling popular decisions expressed in referenda (in the Netherlands, France, Ireland);
2) lobbying hard to overturn or prevent such popular decisions outside the EU (Icelandic referenda);
3) and national authorities ignoring the results of referenda before eliminating even the possibility of popular referenda (Netherlands).
All this took place from 2005 to 2018.
We have now reached a new stage: using every kind of blatantly dirty trick (fabricated accusations of foreign entanglement, detention on ground that an acquaintance committed unlawful acts, registration refusal because of vague criteria) to “cancel” candidates unwanted by European and national elites, but championed by voters (Romania). Previously, the German parliament had toyed with the idea of prohibiting the AfD from participating in elections.
And I would vote neither for Georgescu, nor for the AfD.
I believe that, in the medium term (around 2045), the next step will be to do like Vladimir Zelensky or Mahmoud Abbas: postpone elections indefinitely on the ground that “the conditions are not suitable for the serene conduct of electoral processes guaranteeing genuinely democratic outcomes”.
What and when the final phase of the dismantling of democracy in Europe will be, is written in the stars.
It looks like the EU has imposed its own Warsaw Pact, the walls of which don’t become visible until you try to leave.
It does seem there is quite a bit of concern at the top. Normally maintaining the facade of democracy is quite important.