TikTok candidate leads surprise Romanian election victory
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Romania faced a stunning electoral upset in its Presidential election’s first round, with independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu emerging as the unexpected frontrunner, surpassing all predictions and shocking the political establishment.
The outcome dealt a significant blow to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-election favorite representing leftist-globalist policies, who finished third and was eliminated from the race.
🇷🇴 Călin Georgescu is a black belt in Judo and became vice-champion of Romania and the Balkans in 1979
He is also a black belt in Karate Shotokan and used to run marathons
He currently leads the race for the presidency of Romania as a nationalist candidate pic.twitter.com/52eiS6Bf3n
— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) November 24, 2024
“With more than 99% of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu has an unassailable lead of nearly 350,000 votes over center-right candidate Elena Lasconi, with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-election favorite, in third.
The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no party of his own and campaigned largely on the social media platform TikTok, came as the biggest surprise of the election.”
The December 8 runoff will pit Georgescu against Lasconi, who narrowly edged out Ciolacu by approximately one thousand votes.
“Exit polls released earlier on Sunday suggested that Ciolacu had a commanding lead and projected Lasconi would take second place. Political commentator Radu Magdin said the support for Georgescu was unprecedented, with earlier opinion polls placing him at around 5% of the vote.
‘Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys’, Mr Magdin said.
Georgescu, who belongs to no party, has sworn to end what he calls subservience to the European Union and Nato, especially on support for Ukraine. He has condemned the Nato ballistic missile defense shield in Deveselu, Romania.”
If EU bureaucrats thought Viktor Orbán was a problem for them and their funding for the proxy war in Ukraine, wait until they meet Romania’s future president, Călin Georgescu.
Zelensky’s worshippers hate this man!
pic.twitter.com/KzvGss1RSn— Gabe (@GabeZZOZZ) November 25, 2024
The election, which centered heavily on cost-of-living concerns, also saw nationalist candidate George Simion secure fourth place. Simion has already pledged his support to Georgescu for the runoff election.
“After polls closed, 9.4 million people — about 52.4% of eligible voters — had cast ballots, according to the Central Election Bureau. The second round of the vote will be held Dec. 8.
Thirteen candidates ran for the presidency in the European Union and NATO member countries. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.”