Pro-Russian right-wing extremist Karin Georgescu unexpectedly participated in the run-off election for the head of state of the NATO country Romania. The nonpartisan populist has attracted attention since World War II for his anti-Western stance and admiration for Romanian fascists.
Georgescu did not shy away from contact with Romanian fascists.Image: trapezoid
Georgescu has been largely ignored by competitors and traditional media, but he is very successful on the online platform Tiktok. In the first round of voting, he was ahead of second-placed Social Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. The pair will make a decision on December 8, a week after the election.
Romania, the easternmost EU member with about 19 million inhabitants and considered one of Europe's poorest countries, borders Ukraine to the north, which has been resisting Russian aggression for nearly three years.
Right-wing extremist camps join forces for runoff
On the night of the election, Georgescu said at a press conference broadcast live on Facebook that the Romanian people had “awakened” and expressed their willingness to “no more kneeling, no more invasions, no more humiliation.” Economic uncertainty led to the vote. Georgescu added: “Tonight the Romanian people are shouting 'peace' – probably in response to Russia's aggressive war against neighboring Ukraine.”
According to the Central Electoral Office, the extremists received about 22% of the vote in the first round, while Cholaku received only about 20%. The separately reported votes of Romanians living abroad were not taken into account, and Giorgoscu's share was almost twice as high.
Georges Simien, the candidate of the right-wing extremist parliamentary party AUR, who was eliminated in fourth place with 14% of the vote, announced that he would support Georgescu in the runoff. Candidate Elena Lasconi from the conservative Liberal Reform Party came in third with nearly 19%. She has yet to publicly endorse any of the remaining candidates.
Unforgettable duel memories brought back
A similar situation occurred in the 2000 presidential election, when the social democrat Ion Iliescu faced off against the right-wing extremist Corneliu Vadim Tudor in the runoff. Democratic parties worked together, with strong support from European allies, to successfully prevent extremists from assuming the highest national offices.
In Romania, the president determines foreign and defense policy and participates in controlling the secret service. His power is higher than that of the German Federal President and lower than that of the French head of state. The performance of the candidates in the first round of the presidential election is also likely to affect the December 1 parliamentary election.
Friends of Russian and Romanian Fascism
The Romanian prosecutor's office is investigating Georgescu on accusations of glorifying fascist war crimes, but it is unclear the status of those investigations, Romanian media reported. Like the Romanian fascists known as “legionnaires,” Georgescu often praised Orthodox Christianity and cited biblical quotations. He was a member of the far-right parliamentary party AUR but resigned amid the dispute.
The 62-year-old agricultural scientist and veterinarian mainly advertises himself on Tiktok. Commentators in Bucharest said on election night that traditional media and high-profile politicians should be blamed for not paying enough attention to Georgescu's political propaganda on social media. Even the pollsters didn't see his success, and even post-election surveys on election night didn't show results. (DAB/Sudan Development Authority/Department of Political Affairs)
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