After the surprise victory of far-right outsider Călin Georgescu in the first round of the Romanian presidential election, the Constitutional Court will deliberate today, Thursday, whether the election should be annulled following complaints about illegal campaign financing and other irregularities. With the parliamentary elections due to be held on Sunday, the press sees a highly precarious situation.
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Lack of financing transparency
Something dodgy went on here, Adevărul suspects:
“The law clearly states that any election campaign spending must be reported. Călin Georgescu’s campaign, in particular the one on TikTok, leaves an unresolved issue: how much money the candidate used in his election campaign, and more importantly, where it came from. He reported zero expenses to the electoral commission, even though it’s obvious that, at least on TikTok, he couldn’t have posted that many videos without any money.”
Elections must not be decided by judges
G4media.ro is concerned about democratic legitimacy:
“Cancelling the presidential election and potentially excluding Călin Georgescu would be the second brutal intervention by the state, the major parties and the intelligence services after the Constitutional Court excluded the [ultranationalist candidate] Diana Șoșoacă from the presidential election [in October]. Such arbitrary decisions do nothing to advance democracy. These candidates must be defeated at the ballot box and not through covert manoeuvres. Only in this way can the next president have legitimacy and not come across as just another puppet.”
An explosive situation
Several factors are contributing to the instability, Deutsche Welle’s Romanian service explains:
“The presidential election could be cancelled and Călin Georgescu excluded as a candidate, even if this entails a host of risks including protests by his extremist supporters. What’s more, a conflict between radicals and Nato supporters cannot be ruled out. And the situation becomes even more dangerous against the backdrop of discontent in the military and security agencies after a pension law was challenged in the Constitutional Court, leading to the temporary suspension of planned high pension payments for the secret service, interior and defence ministries.”