Romania's Constitutional Court upholds veto on ultra-Georgescu for presidential elections

BerlinCălin Georgescu will not be able to run in the Romanian presidential elections on May 4. The judges of the Constitutional Court rejected on Tuesday the appeal filed by the pro-Russian ultra-nationalist politician and confirmed the decision of the Central Electoral Commission to invalidate the candidacy for the presidential elections. The decision of the Constitutional Court was taken unanimously and is final and binding.

"Today the masters have decided: no equality, no liberty, no fraternity for Romanians. Long live France and Brussels. Long live their colony called Romania," Georgescu wrote on the social network X. "While the United States is becoming great again, Romania, under the dictatorship, has become greater. They will not stay that way." "The evil of the system will not defeat us," he added.

"Shame on us! Once again, the Constitutional Court is mocking the Romanian people, attacking our democracy and our essential rights and freedoms. "We support Călin Georgescu," the ultra-nationalist George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Roma, reacted on social media. After the verdict was announced, his supporters gathered in the centre of Bucharest to protest against the definitive disqualification of the pro-Russian candidate. Many waved Romanian flags.

The ultra-nationalist politician, who was the favourite in all the polls, re-presented his candidacy for the elections in May a few days ago, but the Central Electoral Commission invalidated it on Sunday.

Bad practices in the first round

The Electoral Board argued that the pro-Russian did not comply with the laws or respect Democratic processes in the first round of November, which led the Constitutional Court to order the elections to be repeated. And so it rejected the new candidacy.

Georgescu, 62, is an ultra-nationalist, Eurosceptic, pro-Russian politician who is very critical of the European Union and NATO. He is a staunch defender of traditional values, family, patriotism and Christian Orthodoxy. He is against support for Ukraine, denounces the corruption of Romanian politicians and promised during the electoral campaign a rebirth of Romania if he was elected president.

Thanks to an electoral campaign focused on social media and viral videos on TikTok, the far-right politician surprisingly won the first round of the presidential elections in November 2024 and made it to the second round. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the election results in December due to alleged Russian interference in the elections and indications of illegal financing of Georgescu's candidacy.

According to Romanian authorities, a network of 25,000 TikTok accounts, Telegram groups and influencers They allegedly coordinated to increase their popularity and were very active two weeks before the elections.