Romanian presidential frontrunner claims he’s victim of coup d’etat

Bucharest’s Constitutional Court has canceled the presidential election results after Calin Georgescu’s surprise first round win.

The invalidation of Romania’s presidential election results by the country’s top court is a formalized coup d’etat, according to the winner of last month’s vote.

Independent candidate Calin Georgescu topped the first round vote with 22.94%, beating out liberal leftist candidate Elena Lasconi, who received 19.18%, and the country’s Social Democrat prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, who finished third with 19.15%.

Ahead of a second round vote, Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled Georgescu’s victory on Friday, citing a clause in the nation’s laws that emphasizes the need to ensure the correctness and legality of the election. The judicial body announced that the entire election would be re-run at a later date.

“Essentially, this is a formalized coup d’etat. The rule of law is in an induced coma, and justice subordinated to political orders has practically lost its essence. It is no longer justice, it obeys the orders,” Georgescu, a strong critic of Romania’s pro-NATO and pro-Ukraine policies, said on Friday, as cited by Realitatea TV.

“The corrupt system in Romania showed its true face by making a pact with the devil,” he claimed.

Georgescu insisted that the power of the people is the basis for a democratic state, and that the authorities are obliged to respect the results of the national vote. The current Romanian government is afraid of losing power and facing revelations, he claimed.

Earlier this week, Western media outlets reported that declassified information from Romania’s intelligence agencies had alleged that the sudden rise of Georgescu in the first round of the election was “not a natural outcome.”

According to the claims, the victory emerged thanks to a coordinated social media effort, most likely orchestrated by a “state actor” meddling in the candidate’s TikTok-based campaign. No evidence has been provided to back up any of the assertions.

The annulment came amid accusations that Moscow had assisted Georgescu’s campaign, dismissed as “absolutely groundless” by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The Romanian elections have been carried out amid “an unprecedented surge of anti-Russian hysteria” that is set “to influence the consciousness and will of the country’s citizens.”

Washington, meanwhile, has praised the Constitutional Court’s decision. On Friday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the US reaffirms its “confidence in Romania’s democratic institutions and processes, including investigations into foreign malign influence.”