In Romania’s first round of presidential elections, hard-right populist Călin Georgescu, previously a little-known candidate, has surprised observers by taking the lead.
Georgescu scored 23 per cent of the vote, beating his Liberal and Socialist opponents who each got 19 per cent. Only the first two candidates go to the second round.
The surprise leader after the first round ran as an independent. Between 2020 and 2022, he was a member of the hard-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party.
Georgescu has unapologetically defended Romanian ultranationalists and fascists from the Second World War.
He is a Romanian engineer, with a PhD in pedology, a discipline within soil science, and is an expert in sustainable development. He also holds a political-military postgraduate degree.
Since the 1990s, he has served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and was nominated for prime minister of the Romanian government several times.
Later, he was active on the international scene, serving as Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Hazardous Waste of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), President of the European Support Centre for the Club of Rome and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Sustainability Index Institute.
Despite his trajectory, he has some unorthodox viewpoints and said in 2022 that the main problem facing the United Nations was the “world system of oligarchs”.
In 2020 he published a video on Facebook, saying that the late dictator Ion Antonescu and late founder of the fascist Christian National Defence League Corneliu Zelea Codreanu were heroes through whom “national history lived”.
“Through them national history speaks and has spoken and not through lackeys on duty of the globalist powers who today rule Romania temporarily,” he said.
Speaking about modern times, his position is similar: “Let’s not forget that Romania is not just any country. We, Romanians, are a civilisation. Therefore, the needs of Romania’s foreign policy are, above all, to preserve the State’s identity in the face of the attack of non-state entities, ie corporations and ‘strategic investors’ such as hedge funds.”
Despite this, he is also known as a Russophile who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, “a man who loves his country”, and derided the US as an imperialist power.
About the war in Ukraine, he said: “The situation in Ukraine is clearly being manipulated, in the interest of triggering a conflict that would financially help the United States military complex, the US military industry.”
“Russia is extremely well prepared – and I don’t think it will fall into the net. The Russians are the best chess players in the world – and they will stay that way – and they know when a trap is set,” he said.
He is opposed to arming and funding Ukraine and he said he did not believe NATO and the European Union represented the interests of Romania, putting himself at odds with the current political consensus in the country.
In addition, he was also highly sceptical about the official narrative regarding Covid-19 and said people should not take the vaccine against it.
Reacting to the result, Georgescu said it was “an amazing awakening” of the Romanian people.
His campaign focused on social media outlets such as TikTok to convey his message.
Georgescu supports tax breaks for Romanian manufacturers, boosting domestic food and energy production and assisting local farmers.
He is not a member of any party and his campaign slogan was: Partidul meu este poporul român (“My party is the Romanian people”). He positioned himself as a “voice for national dignity and moral reconstruction in Romania”.
Elena Lasconi, a Liberal, and Marcel Ciolacu, a Social Democrat, both got 19 per cent but are a few hundred votes apart. As of writing, with 99.95 per cent of the vote counted, Lasconi leads with around 1,400 votes more than her opponent, giving her the edge for the second round.
George Simion, of the hard-right AUR party, scored 14 per cent and sits in fourth spot.
Centre-Right Nicolae Ciucă, president of the Senate and former Prime Minister, only garnered 9 per cent. Behind them, a number of other candidates received the remaining votes.
December 1 is Romania’s parliamentary election day and the second round of the presidential election is scheduled for December 8.
Romania: Presidential election (first round) today:
97.48% counted
Georgescu (*): 23% (new)
Ciolacu (PSD-S&D): 19% (-3)
Lasconi (USR-RE): 19% (+4)
Simion (AUR-ECR): 14% (new)
Ciucă (PNL-EPP): 9% (-29)
Kelemen (UDMR-EPP): 5% (+1)
Geoană (*): 6% (new)
Diaconescu (*): 3% (new)… pic.twitter.com/GwCRPFp38B— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) November 25, 2024
