Romania lost its status as a “deficient democracy” and became the only EU state with a “hybrid regime” in the 2024 Democracy Index report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit’sresearchers. Reporting on the EIU's analysis, investigative journalist Emilia Șercan of the Romanian news platform PressOne identified the reasons for Romania's degraded democracy: the country's corrupt secret services, the long-standing failure of the Romanian army's intelligence structures and the biased judiciary. It's no wonder that the supporters of far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu are driven by a deep dissatisfaction with the current political scene.
Călin Georgescu, a quarantined symptom of a wide-spread disease
In much the same way that low immunity makes an organism more susceptible to infection, Romania's systemic failures allowed Georgescu – with his controversial ideology and shady connections – to run for president and win the first round of last year's elections. That was before Romania's Constitutional Court annulled them, citing "aggressive hybrid actions by Russia".
But Georgescu's links with Russia are not the only stain on his profile. He is at the head of “a network determined to dismantle the Romanian constitutional order by relying on an illegally armed parallel organization, disseminating fascist, racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic hatred thanks to influencers and privileged access to Facebook and TikTok,” argue Eugeniu Popescu and Adina Revol in a recent investigation published in Le Grand Continent.
Despite his sordid past, Georgescu has managed to amass millions of followers. As investigative journalist Andrei Popoviciu explained in his recent op-ed in The Guardian, "Georgescu's success is symptomatic of a wider trend, backed by foreign actors including Russia: the resurgence of ultranationalist, anti-democratic movements that exploit economic insecurity, societal divisions and distrust of mainstream institutions".
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In February, Georgescu was charged by Romanian prosecutors with inciting actions against the constitutional order, making false statements and promoting the cult of those accused of genocide, according to Romanian news channel Digi24.
It's no surprise, then, that Georgescu's attempt to register as a candidate for the upcoming elections on 4 May was rejected. Romania's Central Election Commission (BEC) couldn't overturn the previous decision of the Constitutional Court, which later unanimously rejected Georgescu's appeal, Cristian Otopeanu of the Romanian daily Libertateareports. Georgescu's next move? The leaders of the two far-right parties supporting him, George Simion (AUR; Alliance for the Union of Romania) and Anamaria Gavrilă (POT; Party of Young People), have announced that they will try to collect signatures to run for the presidency, according to Alexandru Mihăescu of the independent Romanian publication G4Media.
Are US and Russia plotting against EU?
A pattern of Russian influence seems to be emerging across the region. And there are signs that the White House may be giving the Kremlin a helping hand.
First, both Moscow and Washington reacted to Georgescu's ban. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, President Vladimir Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that any elections held without Georgescu would be illegitimate. Across the Atlantic, Elon Musk wrote on X that banning Georgescu from running for president "is crazy". This came after Musk expressed outrage when Georgescu was taken into custody for a five-hour hearing. "They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election. This is messed up," Musk typed on X in February. And let's not forget that Georgescu, like Musk, was suspected of making the Nazi salute, says Euronews Romania.
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In Moldova, pro-Russian forces called on Donald Trump for help, with pro-Russia governor of Moldova's Gagauzia region Evghenia Gutul accusing the Moldovan leadership of trying to implement a Ukraine-like scenario in which Maia Sandu's leading liberal forces could receive "unlimited US and EU funds", as reported by the Moldovan investigative newspaper Ziarul de Gardă. This approach is very similar to Georgescu asking Trump to "take care of Romania" when he was arrested, as reported by Digi24.
Following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's noisy visit to the White House, Moldovan President Maia Sandu issued a warning during an online summit marking three years since the start of the war in Ukraine. "A compromised peace that ignores Ukraine's security or marginalises Europe will not end the threat – it will only postpone it," Sandu said, as reported by Ziarul de Gardă. Sandu's concerns echo those of French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned that "if Putin is not stopped, he will turn to Moldova and Romania", as Bulgarian news platform Mediapool pointed out.
Also, the Cypriot foreign ministry declared it stood by Ukraine, as Katy Turner of the Cyprus Mail pointed out. Meanwhile, as reported in the Times of Malta, the Maltese president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said it was "about damn time" for the EU to increase its defence budgets. She warned that with the threat posed by Russia, the continent “cannot afford to depend on others to keep us safe."
In Serbia, Russian news agency TASS reported that President Aleksandar Vučić thanked Vladimir Putin for his support amid what he described as attempts at a "colour revolution". According to Serbian daily Danas, Vučić also expressed support for Donald Trump, specifically praising Trump's stance against certain non-governmental organisations, which Vučić described as involved in "anti-state actions".
Protests continue to capture headlines in Greece, Romania and Serbia
The protests across Southeastern Europe remain in the spotlight as they try to change the deficit regimes into something better. In Romania, when Georgescu's candidacy was once again rejected, his supporters began to break through the fences set up by the police, throwing various objects such as bottles and stones, as reported by David Leonard Bularca and Rebecca Popescu of the Romanian news platform Hotnews.
Watching live footage of the protest, I saw some of the police limping after being hit by stones. Similarly violent scenes unfolded in Greece, where the second anniversary of the Tempi train disaster sparked what the Greek newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton described as the largest rally in the country's history. Meanwhile in Serbia, students continue to protest, even resorting to camping out between the Serbian parliament and the presidency, according to Danas.
To end on a positive note, the writer and founder of the Romanian cultural magazine Dilema Veche, Andrei Pleșu, quoted the famous figure Ion Heliade Rădulescu to remind the adepts of the far-right movements that “the good patriot is not a fanatic, he loves people and knows that nature does not know German, English, French, Greek, or Romanian, but only man.”
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