Scenes from the Romanian capital on Sunday night were reminiscent of the anti-communist Revolution of 1989. A large crowd of protesters tried to storm the headquarters of the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) and riot police used tear gas to push them back once the cordons were breached.
Public anger at the weekend is unlike anything the country has experienced in its 35 years of democratic history, which many feel now has come to an end: authorities banned Călin Georgescu—the nationalist anti-establishment candidate whose first-round victory triggered the annulment of last year’s presidential election—from re-entering the race in May.
For its rationale, the BEC cited the original Constitutional Court (CCR) decision from December that annulled the election, based on murky allegations of Russian interference which still haven’t been proven in public. Since the CCR has established that Georgescu’s initial candidacy had been “unlawful,” letting him run again would be “unacceptable,” the electoral authority said.
Another reason is Georgescu’s failure to disclose his campaign finances ahead of the annulled election—he publicly declared zero campaign budget, then was shown to have spent nearly €1 million—which could be grounds for disqualification itself. However, similar discrepancies had been found in the case of many other parties throughout the years, and no one else had been banned from elections for it.
The BEC is made up of five judges, the president and vice-president of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), and seven representatives of parliamentary parties. According to the media, Georgescu’s candidacy was rejected by 10 votes to four, all of which came from opposition parties—not only the three nationalist outfits, but also the pro-EU liberal USR (Renew), showing that the issue is not Right vs. Left, but pro- vs. anti-establishment.
The decision also came just a few days after the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dismissed Georgescu’s appeal against the election annulment by saying the right to free elections is only guaranteed in case of electing legislative bodies, such as parliaments, and not executive offices.
“Another direct blow to the heart of democracy,” Georgescu commented after BEC made its decision public:
I have only one message: if the democracy in Romania falls, the whole democratic world will fall! This is just the beginning.
Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!
Despite the fact that the decision was deliberately released late on a Sunday evening, it sparked immediate public unrest on the streets of Bucharest, with thousands of protesters gathered in a matter of hours in front of the BEC headquarters, where they lit fires and flipped police cars. Some even tried to storm the building and successfully breached the first police cordons until they were pushed back by an army of riot police equipped with tear gas.
The clashes lasted until about 2 o’clock in the morning. Afterwards police began hunting down dozens of protesters in the nearby streets and even taking them out of subway cars before arresting them. Authorities are bracing for more and bigger protests in the days to follow, as tens of thousands have already gathered for a rally on Monday morning. According to media sources, the government is even considering a state of emergency to curb the public unrest, although it is unlikely to de-escalate the situation.
George Simion—leader of the country’s most popular party and the largest opposition bloc AUR (ECR) that submitted Georgescu’s candidacy—said the decision is the continuation of the “coup d’etat” which began on December 6th, and called for pressure “from our international friends” to restore democracy and free elections.
By this, Simion meant not only his European allies in ECR (of which he’s a vice president) and the wider national conservative circle but also forces as far away as Washington. U.S. Vice President JD Vance publicly condemned the election annulment in his Munich speech last month, and even predicted that Georgescu will not be allowed to run again. Elon Musk also commented on Sunday, calling the BEC’s decision “crazy.”
Talking to europeanconservative.com, Simion said nothing could have inflamed society more than the Electoral Bureau’s “frontal attack on democracy” by “denying a citizen’s fundamental right to stand as a candidate without any grounds whatsoever,” and all they achieved was to galvanize support behind Georgescu and the party:
We, the AUR party, stood and stand by Mr. Georgescu, the most-voted Romanian three months ago. If there is anything that these enemies of freedom, justice, and common sense have achieved, it is to unite us once again and make us stronger.
Simion is also expected to step up as AUR’s presidential candidate instead of Georgescu if all efforts to reinstate him fail. Georgescu has submitted an appeal, and a reply must be given by Tuesday afternoon. However, it’s unlikely that anything will change since the decision will be made at the same socialist-packed Constitutional Court that canceled last year’s election.
According to the latest polls published over the weekend, Georgescu is still the most popular candidate at 38% while no other candidate can reach the 20% threshold. In case Georgescu is not on the ballot, the number one choice of Romanians would be Simion, now at 28%.
Of course, the final result will depend on the outcome of a two-way runoff, which will likely be between either of these two nationalists and whoever wins second place from ruling establishment parties PSD (S&D) and PNL (EPP).
