He independent nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu has become the revelation of the first round of the Romanian presidential elections. Georgescu, a politician widely followed by the Russian propaganda apparatus, achieved 22% of the votes, compared to 20% for the current prime minister, the social democrat. Marcel Ciolacu, with a European vocation. In principle and if the scrutiny continues this trend, by not achieving a majority greater than 50%, both move on to the second electoral round, which will take place on December 8, according to the 97% of the votes already counted. In Third position would have been the liberal Elena Lasconi (18%), that in the absence of counting only 3% of the votes, the second position was disputed, and therefore its passage to the second round, thanks to its strong projection in the diaspora vote.
The result would reveal the surveys, which did not intuit the demographic trend. For example, some of them estimated the support that the winner, Georgescu, would have at only 5%. The participation was 52.5%. Prior to the second round of elections, parliamentary elections will be held on December 1 in which it will be decided which party or coalition will lead the Government of Romania for the next four years.
The polls also erred with the radical candidate Simion, whom they placed with the possibility of going to the second round and came fourth.
The radical candidate George Simion, leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, would have obtained 15% of the votes, an unexpected result, given that it was expected that he could even go to the second round. Simion has shown his admiration for Trump, Meloni and the leader of the Polish far-right, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
According to analysts from the Romanian network Antena24, Georgescu’s candidacy has been fueled by a strong discontent with traditional politics. His message, resounding on issues of sovereignty and defense of national interests, resonated with a significant part of the Romanian electorate, reports Ep. In addition, Georgescu, an engineer by profession, has been the figure of a massive campaign on social networks, especially the TikTok platform.
Romania is in a delicate economic situation. For this reason, the current Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, had focused his electoral campaign on increasing public spending despite the fact that the country has the largest budget deficit of all those belonging to the European Union, all without increasing taxes. In international politics Ciolacu had continued to support NATO’s position against Russia in the Ukraine war. His competitor, Calin Georgescu, had assured that the Alliance would not defend any European country if they suffered attacks from Moscow and that the installation in his country of part of the anti-missile shield was a “diplomatic shame.”
For its part, lasconia journalist by profession, joined the Save Romania Union (USR) in 2018. His program highlights the increase in defense spending and believes it is appropriate to continue helping the Government of kyiv against Moscow. The failed polls indicated that he would win the second round if he managed to pass whenever he faced Ciolacu.
The country shares 650 kilometers of border with Ukraine and it is key so that Ukrainian exports, mainly agricultural, can leave the country without suffering Russian attacks as is the case with its maritime exports through the Black Sea.
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