In Bucharest and London
EPARomanian far-right populist Karin Georgek has lost his appeal against a ruling that barred him from participating in the May presidential election.
The Constitutional Court issued its final ruling Tuesday afternoon after two hours of deliberation. He said the decision was unanimous.
The Central Election Bureau had previously refused Georgek’s candidacy for a rerun of the presidential election in May.
Georgescu won the first round of presidential votes last year, but it was disabled after intelligence revealed that Russia was involved in setting up 800 Tiktok accounts to support him.
On Sunday, the Election Bureau said Georgek’s candidacy “didn’t meet the criteria for legality” because “the exact breach of his obligation to defend democracy.”
Georgescu sued the verdict the following day.
In a Facebook video on Tuesday night, Georgescu didn’t ask for further protests, but instead suggested that they could choose another candidate to return to the May rerun election.
“If you want to support someone by signing a new list of presidential elections, make sure your conscience tells you,” he said. “Democracy and freedom seem to be taking their last breaths these days.
“But now we need to show that our choices are more important in a peaceful and democratic way than in any other time,” Georgescu added.
In the evening, many of the protesters outside the court were covered with Romanian flags on their shoulders. Some lifted the Orthodox Christian icons, while the other grabbed a large wooden cross.
A man dressed in a traditional peasant smock, shook the streetlights with a huge Romanian flag and eagerly shook them over the crowd.
They chanted “Karin Georgek is president” and “freedom” and denounced the judge as a traitor. One woman had signs that read, “Stop the dictatorship.”
It took some time for news of a ruling in favour of the ban to reach the crowd. When that happened there was a big “booing” directed at the internal judges.
EPAThe crowd quickly became loud and angry, saying they came to the streets to protect their democracy.
The man they support, Karin Georgek, comes from the far-right boundaries of Romanian politics, but he is now on the forefront and is committed to making Romania great again.
On February 26th, he was detained for being questioned on the way to register as a candidate for the May election, urging tens of thousands of Romanians to protest and take him to the streets of Bucharest.
Many Romanians believe he is corrupt and blocked by political elites far from the people.
George Simion (AUR), George’s ally and leader of the far-right opposition alliance to unite the Romanians, said, “Shame! You won’t defeat us. The Romanians have awakened. They will win.”
The presidential election was nullified after Georgek won the first round in November 2024. At that time, Intelligence was released, suggesting that Georjuk’s huge Tiktok promotion campaign was backed by Russia.
To European leaders and many in Romania, Russia seemed to weaken Europe and undermine its free value.
That’s the opinion of many Romanians who praise Vladimir Putin and fear men who hate NATO.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the proposal that Russia had ties with Georgek was “absolutely unfounded.”
Many people on the streets of Bucharest Tuesday evening have demanded the right to vote for Georgek, which they have been denied.
“I don’t care who you vote for, I just want to be able to vote,” Anna told the BBC.
Shortly after Georgescu’s video statement, people began to leave the square.
Several supporters told the BBC they were disappointed that more people had not come out in protest.
One man leaving the area said there should have been hundreds of thousands on the streets.
