In Romania, the results of the first round of presidential elections have been annulled. Why is Russia here?
In Romania, the results of the presidential elections were annulled
The Constitutional Court's decision is final and comes after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on December 4 alleging that Russia ran a massive campaign using thousands of TikTok and Telegram social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu.
Despite being an underdog who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu won on November 24. In the second round, which was supposed to take place on Sunday, he would meet with the reformist Yelena Lasconi from the "Union Save Romania" party.
A new date will now be set for the re-run of the first round.
The intelligence was obtained from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service and the Ministry of the Interior.
In light of the intelligence disclosures, Romania's Constitutional Court has received numerous legal complaints calling for the results of the first round of voting to be annulled, but it is not yet clear on what grounds it made such a decision.
Last week, the same court ordered a recount of votes in the first round.
Elections in Romania: what is known
On November 25, 99.9% of the votes of the voters in the presidential elections were counted in Romania — Calin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi then passed in the second round.
Little-known politician Georgescu received 23%. He is an ardent critic of NATO, of which Romania is a member. In particular, he stated that the North Atlantic Alliance would not protect any of its members if they were attacked by Russia.
According to the far-right politician, if he wins the elections, he will stop the export of Ukrainian grain through Romania and aid to Kyiv.
How can I agree to this? This is impossible. Romania and the Romanian people above all else. It is unthinkable to have a war in the middle of Europe next to us, so the priority will certainly be to stop this war in Ukraine immediately.
Documents declassified Wednesday by Romania's Supreme Security Council say the country was targeted by "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks" during the recent presidential election.
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