The Romanian intelligence services suspect a Russian influence campaign on TikTok was behind the success of the far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, who unexpectedly won the first round of the presidential election a fortnight ago. The General Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the alleged attempts to manipulate the vote. A highly confusing situation ahead of the runoff election on Sunday.
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Why is it all only coming out now?
The Romanian service of Deutsche Welle wonders:
“If everything was prepared in advance, why did the Romanian Intelligence Service SRI not take action to prevent interference? Why was important data not forwarded to the public prosecutor’s office? … Why did the Supreme Council of National Defence CSAT not send these documents to the Constitutional Court before validating the first round of balloting? If the entire election campaign was steered by Russia, why should Romania go ahead with this corrupt election? Or does Romania deserve to continue this presidential election at the risk of seeing Moscow’s candidate come to power?”
Moscow’s shadow hanging over Bucharest
It has long since been proven that the Kremlin is operating in the background, La Repubblica explains:
“Moscow’s shadow still hovers over Bucharest in the delicate run-off election next Sunday in Romania in the form of the far-right and pro-Putin candidate Călin Georgescu, the winner of the first round. However, the spotlights of the US, the EU and even the Romanian judiciary are now focusing on him. His election campaign on the social network TikTok has triggered an avalanche of suspicions. Above all, the interference and conditioning by the Kremlin was exposed. … Last Wednesday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis already released documents from an investigation by the Supreme Defence Council that contained evidence of foreign manipulation of the election process in Georgescu’s favour.”
We can only pray
Romania’s democracy is being put to the test with this election, the G4Media.ro blog concludes:
“Now we have no choice but to pray that the TikTok messiah [Călin Georgescu] loses against Elena Lasconi in the great battle for democracy in the madhouse of the Mother of God. Otherwise the Constitutional Court will declare the election invalid on Monday. Then the festival of madness will really begin. There will be more protests, an appointed interim president will try to form a new government. In short, there will be wild confusion that no one can make sense of. And Romanian democracy, what is left of it, will crumble into dust.”
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