European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) stated that the application Calina Georgescu for an urgent ruling must be rejected because it “exceeds the competence” of the Court, which cannot reverse the invalidation of the electoral process.
Previously little known in the country, Georgescu rose to prominence overnight on TikTok, prompting European Union to launch an investigation into the Chinese social media platform.
Romania. The ECtHR rejected Calin Georgescu's appeal
December 6, two days before the planned date of the second round of the presidential elections in Romanialocal Constitutional Tribunal decided not to recognize the first round of the presidential duel and ordered repeating the entire electoral process.
As stated in the justification, the far-right Georgescu committed crimes during his campaign manipulationusing digital technologies and artificial intelligence that are non-transparent and violate the electoral law. Romanian services also claim that he could have been behind his online campaign “external state entity“.
Georgescu immediately denied it, stating that he had become the victim of an “oligarch conspiracy” and that the Constitutional Court had launched a “formalized coup d'état”. In his opinion, the “corrupt system” operated “under pressure from states NATO“interested in continuing the war” in Ukraine.
Therefore, he asked the ECtHR for extradition the so-called interim measure – an urgent judgment issued in exceptional cases where the applicant faces an imminent risk of irreparable harm.
“Mr Georgescu's request did not concern an immediate risk of irreparable harm,” the European body said.
Presidential elections in Romania. Another attempt in May
At the beginning of January in Bucharest There were a series of demonstrations by Georgescu's supporters, who demanded a second round of elections in which he would face his rival, the chairwoman of the center-right USR party. Elena Lasconi.
The declassified documents detail Georgescu's massive social media promotion in the run-up to the November vote.
The candidate himself is a former admirer Vladimir Putin and a NATO critic who recently described himself as a policy supporter Donald Trump – consistently denies any connections with Moscow.
The Romanian government has ordered new presidential elections. The first round will take place on May 4 and the second on May 18as long as none of the candidates receives more than 50 percent in the first round. votes.
According to an Avangarde poll published on Monday, 38 percent Georgescu is leading the support, although it is not yet clear whether he will be able to run in them. Second place went to the candidate of the pro-European government coalition, Crin Antonescu (25%), and third to the mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan (17%). In a survey by INSCOP Research, 69.1 percent respondents declared that they would vote for a candidate or party with a nationalist profile.