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27-11-2024
BUCHAREST: A far-right, pro-Russia candidate has taken a surprise lead in the first round of Romania’s presidential election.
With more than 99% of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was on 23%, followed by centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union and populist social democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-election favorite.
The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no party of his own and campaigned largely on the social media platform TikTok, came as the biggest surprise of the election.
The latest count suggests Lasconi is narrowly ahead of Ciolacu by around 2,000 votes and will face Georgescu in a final run-off for the presidency on 8 December.
Ciolacu tended his resignation as leader of the Social Democrats on Monday morning.
Political commentator Radu Magdin said the support for Georgescu was unprecedented, with earlier opinions polls placing him at around 5% of the vote.
“Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys,” Magdin said.
The victory of Georgescu, who campaigned under the slogan “Restore the dignity of the Romanian nation”, has been warmly welcomed in Russian media.
He previously condemned the Nato ballistic missile defence shield based at the Deveselu military base in southern Romania as “a disgrace”.
Georgescu was a prominent figure in another far-right party, George Simion’s AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians), which eventually expelled him as too radical, after he praised leaders of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist movement during World War Two but late on Sunday night, George Simion endorsed Georgescu, and urged the 1.3 million voters who voted for him on Sunday to support Georgescu in the run-off.
Georgescu’s success poses a dilemma for the millions of Romanians who voted for other candidates.
If Elena Lasconi gets through to the second round, as expected, many supporters of the Social Democrats, especially in rural areas, would find it difficult to support such a liberal, progressive figure.
Campaigning in this election focused largely on the soaring cost of living, with Romania having the EU’s biggest share of people at risk of poverty. Resentment of handouts to Ukrainian refugees in Romania also played a role.
The president in Romania has a largely symbolic role but considerable influence on areas such as foreign policy.
Turnout was 51%, similar to the figure five years ago.
The largest of the Balkan countries, Romania has dramatic mountain scenery and a coastline on the Black Sea.
It has seen numerous empires come and go from the Roman and Ottoman to the Austro-Hungarian.
After World War Two, the country fell under Communist rule, although the leadership pursued a foreign policy independent of that of the Soviet Union.
The legacy of Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu lingered long after the uprising which brought about his downfall on Christmas Day 1989. Romania took a major step away from its past when it was one of seven countries to join NATO in late March 2004.
In April 2005 Bucharest signed an EU accession treaty, paving the way for Romania eventually to join the union in January 2007. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
