A runoff vote for the presidency that was due to take place in Romania on Sunday was cancelled because the Constitutional Court has annulled the first round of voting which the far-right candidate Călin Georgescu won due to suspected manipulation. According to intelligence reports, there was an “aggressive Russian hybrid attack”. The Romanian and European press discuss whether or not this was a wise decision.
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Division instead of unity
The republica.ro blog criticises the Romanians for their lack of unity:
“If Călin Georgescu is really acting in the service of Russia to destabilise the country, then the operation succeeded – even though the runoff election has been cancelled and he has not been elected president. … He has achieved his goal of making Romania easy prey for Russia. Romania is a state that has been shaken by the incompetence and irresponsibility of some of its decision-makers. But it is also tottering because of its population, which prefers to be divided and despise one another instead of looking for a common denominator and fighting for it – true to the tried and tested idea that unity is strength.”
Georgescu would have won the runoff
Spotmedia is torn:
“There is a risk that confidence in the value of elections, which are the cornerstone of democracy, will erode. … If people come to the conclusion that no matter how they vote, the result can be cancelled, they may lose their desire to participate in democracy. And that would have a direct impact on the legitimacy of any political power. Nevertheless, the cancellation averted an immense danger. Because let’s not fool ourselves: there was a very real risk of Mr Georgescu winning the election. … The latest polls put him in the lead.”
Grist to the mill of the radicals
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticises the decision:
“There were very dubious goings-on surrounding the presidential election. … A large number of Tiktok accounts which promoted Georgescu, apparently opened shortly before the elections, large sums of money flowing in the background and a number of influencers who distributed videos in return for cash. These are all processes that can influence the opinion-forming process. … But these things alone are not enough reason to annul an entire round of voting. … In the end, the real winner could end up being the right-wing extremist Georgescu himself, who has been handed another argument by the judges: he spoke of a ‘coup d’état’ after the ruling – and had a few arguments on his side.”
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