He either presents himself as a serious politician in a suit or riding a horse and doing judo. And he bombards the audience on Tiktok with the message: He is a strong leader, a real Romanian and basically sent by God. The Romanian media now calls him “Tiktok politician” or “phantom candidate,” and with good reason: 62-year-old Calin Georgescu, an agronomist and consultant for sustainable development, was practically not an issue in the traditional election campaign.
Georgescu is no stranger
But in the last few weeks his presence on social media suddenly increased significantly. This leads many commentators to conclude that Georgescu’s good performance is the work of foreign, probably Russian, actors. And that it is a colossal failure of the Romanian institutions, because Georgescu is no stranger.
His glorification of fascism is well known, including the judiciary. But he was allowed to run for office even though anti-Semitism and the glorification of fascism are prohibited by law in Romania. Corresponding warnings were not taken seriously – perhaps they didn’t want to.
And so Romania – which hosts a NATO military base and supplies weapons to Ukraine – elected in the first round a figure who likes to rave about “Russian wisdom” and calls NATO’s missile defense shield over Romania a “diplomatic disgrace.”
Nationalist ideas widespread
It may be that this is, among other things, the work of Russian trolls. But Georgescu also touched a nerve: There is great discontent among the population about the political class, which, it is perceived, does not care about the real problems of the people and is corrupt.
Furthermore, support for Ukraine is not only met with approval. And Greater Romanian, nationalist ideas are accepted well into the middle of the political spectrum.
Duel Georgescu vs. Lasconi
With their vote, the electorate punished established politics. And so two new figures are fighting for the presidency: the independent extremist Calin Georgescu and the pro-Western, liberal Elena Lasconi, who, together with her party, stands for the rule of law and the fight against corruption, and for supporting Ukraine. Although Lasconi appears to have integrity and winning, he has relatively little political experience.
It is conceivable that Georgescu can win the runoff against this candidate. The voter potential of the right-wing populists and ultra-nationalists is great: all candidates taken together received around a third of the votes.
