Even though Georgescu’s win — on 23 percent — sparked the panic that ultimately led to the annulment of the vote, he still appears very much in contention for the rerun. Much will now depend on whether he is disqualified by the Constitutional Court because of accusations of undeclared funding.
His continued, and possibly even growing, popularity is partly due to deep suspicion of the cronyism and nepotism of the traditional old parties, who are viewed by many Romanians as pulling strings to annul the first vote.
Georgescu, a vaccine-skeptical maverick who called Russian President Vladimir Putin a patriot and opposes aid to Ukraine, is seen as a threat to Bucharest’s position in the EU and NATO, although he would — to some degree — be held in check by parliament and the government if he were to win.
Declassified intelligence documents alleged that paid influencers, along with members of extremist, right-wing groups and people with ties to organized crime, promoted Georgescu’s candidacy online ahead of Nov. 24.
While the documents said Russia was broadly trying to undermine the election, they didn’t directly state that Moscow specifically swayed Georgescu’s campaign — although they strongly suggested it.
Controversial annulment
Despite this alleged foreign interference, a majority of Romanians still think it was a bad decision to cancel the election, according to a small poll of nearly 1,000 respondents by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy, a think tank. Georgescu would have won the runoff if it wasn’t canceled, according to the poll.
