So apparently, there are riots going on in Romania and it's because a truly independent presidential candidate won the first round of elections, despite not being on the ballot, yet he had his victory voided, despite the Romanian courts initially accepting his victory.
I don't know much about this guy, but he actually and surprisingly does seem genuine. He is 100% anti-COVID vaccine, against funding Ukraine (while also not being pro-Russia), and is skeptical of both the Apollo moon landings and 9/11.
I mean, wow! I never would think a truly independent candidate would get that far in this day and age, but it shouldn't be surprising that the courts would void the election. Now people are taking on to the streets about it.
I'd say to keep an eye on the situation. Things might get interesting.
@xianc78
Romanian here.
>won the first round of elections, despite not being on the ballot
No, he was on the ballot. He was just an unknown candidate, that had maybe 5% in the polls, and got 23% of the final vote, a lot of which actually came from voters outside the country. We have a large number of Romanians living abroad.
>yet he had his victory voided, despite the Romanian courts initially accepting his victory.
We have several steps of certifying an election result. First comes the Central Electoral Bureau, which gave their ok. But then came the Constitutional Court, that supposedly received info from secret services and other law enforcement organizations that said there was Russian meddling, so this court voided the results.
The problem is that the public never got access to the full info, so it's unclear how far the Russian meddling really went, and if it cancelling the election was justified or not.
>I don't know much about this guy
Frankly I don't follow on what he thinks much either. But so far he doesn't seem genuine to me. He pushes a lot of platitudes and empty religious/spiritual phrases to appeal to the 90% Christian audience.
He definitely seems to be a bit anti-NATO/EU. Not quite enough to try to take us out, I think, but maybe just enough to hurt diplomacy.
But I'm not sure about him not being pro-Russia.
One big point of contention with him now is that it was found that several years ago, in an interview, he named as "heroes" a few leaders of a Romanian WW2 fascist organization, the Legionary Movement. So now he's currently being prosecuted, with accusations such as promoting war criminals, promoting an extremist ideology, antisemitism. I don't know where the antisemitism accusation comes from, I haven't managed to find that, but most of the rest seem to stem from that interview.
He's also being prosecuted because he committed campaign finance fraud, as he declared he spend $0 during his campaign, which is obviously false.
Another problem is that several accomplices close to him seem to have been preparing for a coup. One of them was caught with massive amounts of guns (which are pretty much illegal here), and was caught trying to contact a Russian military official. He's also accused of forming a fascist organization and a paramilitary group.
Another guy, just yesterday, apparently texted in a mercenary group that people need to go out with axes, guns, things that can be used as weapons, and protest. Basically inciting a riot.
There's A LOT of weirdness going around Georgescu, and ties to Russia seem very likely.
You're right that things are getting interesting. Last week and this week is when presidential candidates need to register to run for the election redo in May. And once again, after they register, the Central Electoral Bureau decides if they're allowed to be on the ballot. And they just decided the other day that Georgescu cannot run for presidency, citing a precedent from the Constitutional Court from last year, when they forbade a different candidate, because her views were against the Constitution. But most people agree that this was a bad decision and precedent, so we're stuck in a bad place. You can appeal a decision against your right to run for elections at the Constitutional Court, and Georgescu did appeal. We're now waiting for the decision. But considering they set the precedent, I don't see how he could win.
It is very likely that Georgescu is a Russian stooge. It is very likely that there was severe influence in the election last year. And I'm not even sure if Georgescu legit planned on winning the election. I wouldn't be surprised if what he really wants is to create complete chaos, and then to a coup and take over power in the middle of that.
But at the same time, a lot of the measures being taken to stop Georgescu have been... potentially extreme, and not justified to the public. It is possible, that in a few years time, looking back, we'll see things as just. But currently, the accusations are not being backed up with enough evidence. At best you can say that authorities are doing the right thing, but for wrong reasons. At worst you can interpret it as tyranny.
Oh, and to add on the fun, authorities recently arrested a different group of individuals for planning a coup, and overthrowing the political system. And they're also accused of having ties to Russia. So things are really really bad and unstable right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Romanian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt
Believe it or not, this was me doing a summary of things.
