Romania set for presidential runoff after court certifies first round

Romania’s top court has certified a little-known far-right populist’s shock first-round victory in its presidential election, an outcome that plunged the country into a political crisis amid allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference.

The ruling by Romania’s Constitutional Court clears the way for a runoff on 8 December between Cǎlin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly ultranationalist running as an independent, and centre-right contender Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union (USR).

Romania has been in turmoil since Georgescu’s victory on 24 November, which raised concerns of possible foreign meddling in the elections of an EU and NATO member state — one that is reliably pro-Western and a staunch supporter of Ukraine.

Georgescu, who was polling in single digits before the vote, won 22.9% ahead of Lasconi’s 19.2%.

A recount was prompted by a complaint from Cristian Terhes, a presidential candidate who won 1% of the first-round ballot. Terhes said the court ordered the recount on Thursday “due to indications of fraud”, alleging that valid votes cast for Ludovic Orban, a former prime minister who had dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot, were reassigned to Lasconi.

“Judges unanimously decided to … confirm and validate the result of the first presidential round on 24 November and holding the second round on 8 December,” chief judge Marian Enache said on Monday.

The ruling came a day after a parliamentary election in which the governing leftist Social Democrat Party (PSD) appeared on track to win the most votes, while the far-right made significant gains.

With 99.98% of votes counted, the PSD had won 22.3%, ahead of the hard-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) with 18.3%. Lasconi’s centrist opposition USR had 12.3%, while the junior ruling coalition ally National Liberal party (PNL) won 14.3%.

Far-right groups SOS and Party of Young People (POT) had 7.8% and 6.4% respectively, and the ethnic Hungarian Party UDMR was on 6.4%.

While negotiations to form a government coalition are already underway, the winner of the presidential race will have the final say, since the president appoints a prime minister.

TikTok scrutiny

Although the parliamentary election results appear to reaffirm Romania’s pro-EU and pro-NATO stance — about 70% of votes went to mainstream parties — the gains for the far-right and Georgescu’s 24 November win reflect increasing polarisation.

Anti-EU and anti-NATO narratives have been prevalent in the nation, especially on social media, since the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Georgescu’s surprise success has prompted a series of protests by citizens who claim he is a threat to democracy, and who are concerned with previous remarks he made praising Romanian fascist and nationalist leaders as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Many political analysts have attributed Georgescu’s rapid rise in popularity to his presence on the social media platform TikTok.

Without naming Georgescu, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis’ office said after a Supreme Council of National Defence meeting on Thursday that an analysis of documents revealed that “a presidential candidate benefited from massive exposure due to preferential treatment granted by the TikTok platform”.

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Romania’s National Audiovisual Council asked the European Commission to investigate TikTok’s role in the first-round vote.

Pavel Popescu, the vice president of Romania’s media regulator Ancom, said he would request TikTok’s suspension in the country if investigations find evidence of “manipulation of the electoral process”.

TikTok said on Monday it was “inaccurate and misleading” to ascribe Georgescu’s campaign activity solely to the app, and noted that he also used other social media.

The Supreme Council of National Defence also said last week that it had evidence of cyberattacks intended to influence the country’s elections. It said Romania was a target for “hostile actions by state and non-state actors, especially the Russian Federation”.

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Moscow on Friday denied engaging in any interference.

“We are not in the habit of interfering in elections in other countries, particularly in Romania, nor do we intend to do so now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.