The far-right contender for president of Romania claims he has no intention of leaving NATO

Surprisingly, the far-right candidate who won the first round of Romania’s presidential election said he doesn’t want to leave NATO or the EU. He also seemed to change some of his views in response to protests over his win.

Before Sunday’s first round of voting, independent right-wing politician Calin Georgescu, 62, had ranked in the single digits. He then swept to a shocking victory that made people wonder how such a shock could have happened.

On December 8, he will face Elena Lasconi, a candidate from the center, in a runoff.
Young people and Romanians living abroad gave Georgescu the most votes, and TikTok was a big part of his campaign.

A lot of people protested in Bucharest on Tuesday night. They chanted “No Putin, no fear, Europe is our mother” and “Young people ask you not to vote for a dictator.” There were also protests in other big towns.

Georgescu has called Romanian fascist leaders from the 1930s national heroes and martyrs. He has also said that Romania should work with Russia instead of joining NATO and supporting Ukraine.

He did say on Facebook on Tuesday night, though, “I do not want to leave NATO or the European Union.” But what I really want is to stand up, not kneel over there or take everything. As I already said, we should do everything that is best for our country.

TIKTOK

On Tuesday, Romania’s National Audiovisual Council said there were “suspicions of manipulation of public opinion” and asked the European Commission to look into what part TikTok played in the vote.

Council Vice President Valentin-Alexandru Jucan said that the group thought the platform’s algorithms had boosted content that was good for one candidate and that it wasn’t clear who was paying for election content.

A TikTok representative played down these worries.

“These… reports about the Romanian elections are inaccurate and misleading, as most candidates have established a TikTok presence and the winners campaigned on other digital platforms beyond ours,” the TikTok rep said.

When asked for comment by email, the European Commission did not answer.

Stefan Mandachi, an investor and influential person who backed Georgescu before the election, said he was sorry on Facebook on Tuesday, saying he had voted against the establishment parties without knowing much about Georgescu’s position.

Georgescu has said that his campaign had no money and that all the work was done by volunteers. Analysts and lawmakers have said that his unexpected win compared to polls done before the election showed that the election was hacked from abroad.

Before the vote, Romania’s intelligence office told lawmakers that there were no signs that the country’s security had been compromised.