“Today is the moment when the Romanian state trampled over democracy. God, the Romanian people, the truth and the law will prevail and will punish those who are guilty of destroying our democracy,” she said immediately after the annulment.
Nicolae Ciucă, the head of the Romanian senate and the National Liberal Party’s presidential candidate in the first round called for “calm, unity and maturity” and said he supported all necessary efforts to clarify any suspicions and to guarantee a fair election.
The decision to cancel the vote was “without precedent in Romania’s democratic history,” he said, adding “the current situation is a difficult test for our democratic institutions.”
The unexpected ruling risks destabilizing Romania, a strategically important NATO member of 19 million people on the eastern edge of the European Union.
The shock win for Georgescu in the first round on Nov. 24 triggered widespread dismay among pro-Western centrists, and sparked demonstrations in central Bucharest, with thousands of pro-Europeans turning out to voice their support for maintaining the country’s international alliances.
On Friday evening, police were out in force in central Bucharest, stationing vans and cars with blue lights flashing on the city’s main streets. In University Square, where the biggest pro-EU demonstration was held on Thursday, four police vans parked alongside several police cars, though no crowds had gathered by 7 p.m. local time.
