Romania’s political landscape was left shocked after pro-Russia populist Calin Georgescu won the first round of the presidential election. The far-right leader knocked the EU-leaning premier out of the race that will be decided in a December run-off.
Here are top facts about Romania’s hard-right presidential candidate
- Ahead of Sunday’s first election round, opinion surveys had shown 62-year-old Mr Georgescu, an independent candidate, polling in single digits. But in recent days, his popularity surged after his TikTok campaign calling for an end to aid for Ukraine went viral.
- Mr Georgescu was a member of the hard-right opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), which touted him as their choice for prime minister.
- He left AUR in 2022 after senior party members said his pro-Russian and anti-NATO stance damaged the party’s image. Mr Georgescu has sounded a sceptical note on Romania’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership.
- In a 2021 interview, Mr Georgescu called NATO’s ballistic missile defence shield in Romania’s Deveselu a “shame of diplomacy” and said the alliance will not protect any of its members should they be attacked by Russia.
- He has also termed Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as Romania’s national heroes. Antonescu was Romania’s de facto World War Two leader, who was sentenced to death for his part in Romania’s Holocaust. Codreanu was the pre-World War Two leader of the Iron Guard- one of Europe’s most violent anti-Semitic movements.
- In another public address, Mr Georgescu said Romania wasn’t ready to handle anything diplomatically and strategically and that its best chance lay with “Russian wisdom.” However, he has refused to explicitly say whether he supports Russia.
- Russia on Monday said it did not know much about Mr Georgescu, who is in pole position to become the EU member’s next president. “I can’t say that we are very familiar with the worldview of this candidate, as far it concerns relations with our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
- In an unexpected outcome that threatens Romania’s staunchly pro-Ukraine stance, far-right Mr Georgescu will likely face centre-right contender Elena Lasconi in a December 8 presidential run-off vote. Sunday’s results are one of the biggest surprises in Romanian post-communist elections, with the leaders of the two largest parties, the leftist Social Democrats and centre-right Liberals – which are in a coalition government – eliminated in the first round.
- Outgoing two-term president Klaus Iohannis, 65, had cemented Romania’s strong pro-Western stance but was accused of not doing enough to fight corruption.
- Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine and since Russia attacked Kyiv in 2022, it has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defence battery.
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