‘Aggressive’ Russian Attacks
Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu votes during parliamentary elections at a polling station near Bucharest, Romania, on Dec. 1.Mihai Barbu/AFP via Getty Images
Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the country’s ongoing presidential election on Friday, citing alleged Russian interference. The top court’s decision is final and binding. Under the ruling, the entire presidential election process—during which more than half of registered voters had submitted their ballots during the first round—will have to be rerun. Outgoing President Klaus Iohannis’s term ends on Dec. 21, and until the government selects a new election date, it is unclear who will be the head of state after he leaves.
The runoff, initially scheduled for this Sunday, pitted pro-Russian, far-right candidate Calin Georgescu against pro-European Union, centrist leader Elena Lasconi. On Monday, the Constitutional Court validated the first presidential election round, which saw Georgescu surge to first place despite opinion polling having him at single digits until just days before the election. However, the court decided to reverse that ruling after Romania’s top security council declassified documents on Wednesday that highlighted “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.
Moscow has denied any interference.
The court is “seeking to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process,” the justices said, adding that a detailed explanation of their ruling would be released at a later date. According to Romanian intelligence, authorities identified more than 85,000 attempted cyberattacks on election websites and IT systems.
They also accused Russia of running a vast influence campaign to promote Georgescu on social media platforms, including TikTok and Telegram, and they alleged that TikTok gave him “preferential treatment” by not marking him as a political candidate, in violation of the country’s electoral laws. TikTok has denied giving Georgescu any special treatment.
Romania’s anti-organized crime prosecuting unit announced on Friday that it will launch an investigation into Georgescu’s campaign. It is unclear if the pro-Russian candidate will be allowed to participate in the rerun.
Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu—who ran in the election but did not make the runoff—called the ruling “the only correct solution.” However, many lawmakers have denounced the court’s decision. This “is practically an official coup d’etat,” Georgescu said on Friday in a recorded message. “The state is in an induced coma.”
Lasconi also condemned the ruling. “The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy,” she said. “Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes.”
Analysts worry that the court’s decision could erode Romania’s institutions, trigger protests, and potentially endanger the country’s pro-Western trajectory; Romania is a member of the EU and NATO. Georgescu seeks to shift closer to other Moscow-friendly nations in Eastern Europe and end Bucharest’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Such a shift away from the West “would have serious negative impacts on U.S. security cooperation with Romania,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller warned on Wednesday, following the documents’ declassification.
The parliamentary elections held on Dec. 1, in which far-right parties secured a third of seats but the ruling Social Democrats won the largest grouping, will be unaffected by the court’s ruling.