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A pro-Russia, far-right politician has won the first round of Romania’s presidential elections, according to the electoral commission, dealing a major blow to the country’s political establishment.
Călin Georgescu, formerly linked to the radical nationalist AUR party, had run as an independent and was not seen as a frontrunner. As no candidate received more than 50 per cent of Sunday’s vote, Georgescu will take part in a run-off in two weeks.
If Georgescu wins he will hold the most powerful office in Romania, with the right to nominate the prime minister, conduct coalition talks and have the last word on security and foreign policy matters.
“Today, a vote is a prayer for the nation,” Georgescu wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “I voted for the wronged, for the humiliated, for those who feel that they do not matter in this world . . . they are the ones that matter!”
With nearly all of the ballots counted, Georgescu had secured 23 per cent of the vote. Liberal leader Elena Lasconi was second with 19.2 per cent — an edge of about 1,000 votes on leftist prime minister Marcel Ciolacu, who had been the frontrunner in polls leading up to the election.
“This is a political earthquake,” Costin Ciobanu, a researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark. “No one predicted this. A radical right candidate will win the first round and there is a possibility that PM Ciolacu will not make it to the second round.”
The election took place against a backdrop of discontent with the status quo, with Ciolacu’s coalition government facing accusations of corruption and mismanagement.
Georgescu has previously questioned Romania’s membership of Nato, arguing the country did not see clear benefits from the alliance. He has also criticised the placement of an anti-missile shield in Romania, in statements that echo Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In 2020, he called Putin one of the world’s few “true leaders” and said the Russian president “loved his country”.
During his time as an honorary member of the AUR, Georgescu attracted widespread condemnation for endorsing past Romanian far-right leaders. He has also referred to Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu, under whose rule hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, as a “martyr”.
In this weekend’s presidential poll AUR leader George Simion was in fourth place with 13 per cent, while other candidates such as former prime minister Nicolae Ciucă and former Nato deputy secretary-general Mircea Geoană registered less than 10 per cent of the vote each.