Romanian democracy in danger as top court annuls election result
The Romanian state and its EU allies insist the measures are only to increase transparency, but critics are labelling the effort a putsch
Romania’s top constitutional court has made the unprecedented decision to annul the nation’s first round of voting and cancel Sunday’s Presidential runoff – a highly controversial ruling which has sent shockwaves across the nation and throughout Europe.
The move follows this week’s revelation by Romanian security services that Russia had launched a “coordinated effort” to influence the election and was conducting “aggressive hybrid attacks” on state institutions. Alongside countless attempted cyber infiltrations, authorities disclosed that numerous influencers and tens of thousands of social media accounts had been employed for the sole purpose of boosting the campaign of fringe right-winger Călin Georgescu.
Georgescu’s victory in the first round came as a shock to many across Romania and the EU as the outsider had no party behind him, no campaign office, was previously polling in the single digits, and was not included in televised debates.
Georgescu's unorthodox platform has raised serious concerns as he has pledged to end all funding for Ukraine and, despite claiming he is not personally “a fan” of Putin, he has characterised the Russian leader as a "patriot and a leader”. Georgescu has also been labelled as dangerously far-right by many who reference his past remarks honouring Romanian fascists and Nazi collaborators as heroes.
Prior to today’s court decision, Georgescu decried the state’s bid to hold an election recount of the first round – which ultimately validated his total: “I think it’s the first time in the history of the world when a state is organising an action against a candidate to stop him from running.”
While the Romanian state and its EU allies insist the measures are only to increase transparency and investigate possible enemy-state infiltration, critics are labeling the effort a putsch designed to cripple an anti-establishment populist with a genuine movement behind him. Georgescu has denied being privy to any social media efforts on his behalf and has asserted that he did not coordinate with any Russian agents. While providing evidence that foreign-sponsored public opinion campaigns had been undertaken to bolster Georgescu's run, Romanian authorities have not shown any evidence of ballot or vote count manipulation.
The week’s polls placed Georgescu ahead with a sizeable lead over his liberal run-off contender, Elena Lasconi.
But, today, Lasconie chose to side with her rival over the country’s top constitutional court. She denounced the annulment as “illegal, immoral”, and accusing the court of “crushing the essence of democracy, the vote”.
In contrast, Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who lost by a wide margin in the first round of Presidential voting, called the court’s ruling “the only fair solution”.
Due to the annulment, the first-round vote will now occur for a second time. The highly contentious re-run - which has to occur soon as the current President's term ends on the 21 December - is likely to deepen the polarisation in an already divided Romania. Additional complications are posed by the last-minute nature of the decision, as 48,000 Romanians abroad had already voted in the runoff which was due for Sunday.
The chaos of Romania’s election is just one example - albeit an extreme one - of challenges plaguing a host of western liberal democracies. Insurgent populists are on the move and there are allegations of nefarious foreign forces seeking to influence public opinion.
Josh Schlicht
Reaction Reporter
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