Romanian presidential candidate Georgescu barred from running
Calin Georgescu apppearing on television. November 2025. (Octav Ganea/Getty Images)
The independent candidate Calin Georgescu, who led the first round of Romania’s cancelled presidential election in November 2024, has been barred from running again following a decision released Sunday. After the statement, Georgescu’s supporters took to the street and clashed with the police.
Why are there elections again?
The Romanian Central Election Bureau (BEC) stated that Georgescu, who received the highest number of votes in the first round of the cancelled election, was excluded from elections again.
This decision comes after last year’s disputed election, which was invalidated by the Constitutional Court over claims of Russian interference in support of Georgescu. The court also stated that Georgescu violated electoral rules, preventing him from running again.
What happened?
In the final weeks before the first round of the Nov. 24 presidential election, 25,000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts became active. Romanian analysts considered this an attempt to sway the elections in his favor.
Documents from the intelligence revealed that Georgescu had illegally benefited from external factors. The documents claimed that his campaign had received financial backing from foreign sources.
His comments regarding NATO and the EU had been highly criticized and were depicted as a shift toward Moscow. Georgescu praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a leader and a patriot and promised to stop providing aid to Ukraine.
‘If Romania falls, world falls’
Georgescu, in a statement after his candidacy was rejected, claimed that Europe is under “dictatorship” and stated, “If democracy falls in Romania, the whole democratic world will fall. This is just the beginning. Europe is a dictatorship and Romania is under tyranny.”
After his statement, Georgescu’s supporters clashed with police and attempted to storm the Election Bureau’s Headquarters.
Elon Musk criticizes choice
In a post on X, Elon Musk, who supports Calin Georgescu, referred to the decision as “madness”. Musk has also left other comments on X.
Musk’s comments prompted a response from Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu who stated that this was ” interference in another state’s internal elections.”
