Romania moving to the right in biggest political upheaval in 30 years > NATO, EU beware

 

Likely future President sees EU and NATO for what they are. Prefers Russia. 

Romania picks far-right candidate Calin Georgescu

in presidential first round

By Paul Godfrey

A man casts his ballot Sunday in the first round of a presidential poll as an election volunteer looks on at a voting station in the capital, Bucharest. Photo by Bogdan Cristel/EPA-EFE

Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The pro-Russian nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu had racked up a definitive 350,000 vote lead in an upset in Romania's presidential election as counting in the first round wound to a finish Monday.

The "Tik Tok" candidate, so-called because he ran his campaign around the video-sharing social media platform, narrowly beat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who was the favorite, into third place behind the center-right candidate Elena Lasconi.

The pro-Europe Ciolacu was expected to win comfortably according to exit polls during Sunday's voting but with 99% of ballots counted Georgescu was ahead with 22.95 % of the vote, Lasconi on 19.17% and Ciolacu on 19.15% leaving Georgescu poised to take on Lasconi in a run-off election in two weeks' time.

Turnout was about 52.4% -- about 9.4 million people -- with the country's diaspora playing a critical part, with a record 800,000 overseas Romanians taking part.

Heralding what he called "an amazing awakening" of the Romanian people Georgescu said the result was the biggest shake-up in Romanian politics since the end of Communist rule more than three decades ago.

"The 35-years-long economic uncertainty imposed on the Romanian people became uncertainty for the political parties today," he said after the polls closed on Sunday.

    France 24

Georgescu, campaigned on cutting Romania's dependence on imports by boosting energy and food production prodiction through more support for farmers. He was also critical of the European Union and NATO saying membership of the institutions was not in the country's interest.

In particular, he has sought to undermine NATO by suggesting the military alliance might not come to Romania's defense in the event it was attacked, as required by Article 5 of the founding treaty, and previously parroted claims by Putin that an "Iron Dome"-style U.S. missile defense system in the south of the country is more about confrontation than defense.

Georgescu has questioned Western military support for Ukraine in its battle to expel invading Russian forces, lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin and praised neighboring Hungary's populist conservatism, Euroskepticism and uncompromising stance on issues from migration to protectionism.

The apparent shift to the right follows summer European elections in which the far-right made big gains in France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and to a lesser extent in Germany and Romania.

In another tussle for hearts and minds between west and east, people in neighboring Moldova voted to join the European Union in a non-binding referendum in October by the narrowest of margins -- 0.8% -- amid allegations of widespread Russian interference and destabilization efforts.

"Criminal groups, working with foreign forces hostile to our national interests, have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies, and propaganda, using the most disgraceful means to keep our nation trapped in uncertainty and instability," Moldova's pro-EU president, Maia Sandu said after the vote.

"We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes -- a fraud of unprecedented scale. Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society."

Moldovan security agencies alleged Russia spent $108 million to get Moldovans to vote against closer ties with the EU and European lawmakers and elections monitoring groups have denounced what they alleged was widespread Russian vote-buying, cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns.

Prior to the referendum, MEPs passed a resolution condemning the escalating actions, interference and hybrid operations of a "plethora of malicious actors, including pro-Russian Moldovan oligarchs and Russia's state-funded RT network, in carrying out voter fraud schemes as well as cyber operations and information warfare."

Western countries and Ukraine have been fighting an uphill battle for influence in the tiny landlocked country, bordered by Ukraine on three sides and Romania to the west, internally riven as it already is by the pro-Moscow breakaway Transnistria region where Russian boots have been on the ground for more than three decades.

The Council of Europe ruled in 2022 that Transnistria was Moldovan territory occupied by Russia.