George Simion, chairmain of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) and Anamaria Gavrilă of the Party of Young People (POT), have announced they will run instead of the right-wing Călin Georgescu.
With Georgescu now definitively barred from running in the upcoming May presidential election, he and his allies have agreed on a plan to represent the “sovereigntist” movement, aiming to preserve his voter base’s momentum.
Both Simion and Gavrilă will file candidacies by the March 15 deadline, requiring 200,000 signatures each. If both were validated, one will withdraw to consolidate support, they said on March 12.
The announcement was made by the pair in a message posted on social networks, after a meeting with Georgescu.
“The context in which we are delivering this message is neither constitutional nor democratic. We must return to normality and to the second round. After we, the leaders of the two sovereignist parties, met with Mr Călin Georgescu, we can now share the plan: all pressure must be on reinstating the second round,” Simion said.
“As young people, we will continue this sovereignist movement with the approval of Mr. Călin Georgescu and will take the necessary steps forward,” he added.
“Therefore, both George Simion and I, Anamaria Gavrilă, will submit our candidacies. We need you to stand with us. Following the final validation of these candidacies, one of us will withdraw,” the POT president said.
“We must give this sovereignist movement every possible chance. Stand by us — without you, we cannot succeed. We merely represent what you are and what you experience.”
🇷🇴After our latest discussion w/ @CG_Romania, I decided to submit my candidacy as President of #Romania.
Our sovereignist movement continues with the full support of Călin #Georgescu.
There is only solution: national unity!
God help us!— 🇷🇴 George Simion 🇲🇩 (@georgesimion) March 12, 2025
Romania’s political scene has been in flux since Georgescu topped the November 2024 presidential election with 23 per cent of the vote as an independent candidate.
In reaction to this, with Georgescu courting controversy by having made several right-wing, esoteric and apparently [Russian President Vladimir] Putin-friendly remarks, the Romanian Government cancelled the presidential elections on December 6 last year.
Following that, the Central Electoral Bureau ultimately barred him from the democratic process, citing financial irregularities.
Georgescu was also accused of being connected to Russia but no evidence for this has been presented.
He had steadily been polled in the lead for the upcoming presidential elections.
Simion also risked being barred from the elections, as a criminal case has been opened against him after comments made during a protest in support of Georgescu on March 9.
In a video he later posted on social media, he stated that those who contributed to the decision of the Central Electoral Bureau to invalidate Georgescu’s candidacy should be “skinned in the public square”.
Other candidates were Nicușor Dan (independent, Bucharest Mayor), Crin Antonescu (centre-right, ex-Senate President and pro-European Union), Victor Ponta (independent, centre-left, ex-PM), Elena Lasconi (Liberal, ex-mayor ad pro-EU) and Diana Șoșoacă (leader of the populist Right SOS Romania Party, senator and anti-EU).
COMMENT: The documents relied upon to annul Romania’s presidential election first round provide no concrete evidence of Russian state interference or any links between presidential candidate Calin Georgescu and Russia, writes @GElefteriu. https://t.co/AMkt8cxIEp
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 9, 2025
