Thousands protested in Bucharest against the annulment of Romania’s presidential election and the ban on far-right frontrunner Calin Georgescu. With a new vote set for May, George Simion emerges as the hard-right's candidate, as tensions rise over Romania’s political future and EU ties.
Thousands of Romanians gathered in the capital Bucharest on Wednesday to protest the December cancellation of a presidential election and the banning of its far-right frontrunner from standing for office again.
The European Union and NATO member which borders Ukraine will repeat its two-round presidential election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling in favour of far-right, pro-Russian frontrunner Calin Georgescu.
Earlier this month, it banned Georgescu from running again, and George Simion, leader of Romania's second largest party, the Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), subsequently became the hard right's replacement candidate.
Georgescu, who turned 63 on Wednesday, has not publicly commented since he was disqualified and has stopped short of outright endorsing Simion.
Opinion surveys released earlier this month show Simion is poised to make it into the run-off vote on May 18.
Simion's AUR organised Wednesday's protest outside the government headquarters in downtown Bucharest, which saw several thousand people gather, shouting "Freedom" and "Thieves," waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas.
Separately, a competing pro-Georgescu rally saw several thousand more protesters gather.
"This fake government should fall. It has cut democracy and sold the country," said Claudiu Ghita, 62, a retired railroad worker. "I will vote for George Simion in May."
If a far-right candidate succeeds in swaying Georgescu's voters, it could determine whether another central European country swings closer to Moscow beside Hungary and Slovakia.
"Calin Georgescu is out, we will vote Simion. The ultranationalists have not been in power yet and we need peace," said Maria, who declined to give her last name. She was wearing a red Make America Great Again T-shirt and waving a giant Romanian flag.
The far right, which now holds 35% of parliament seats, has painted Romanian mainstream parties as beholden to covert Brussels interests, and has stoked fears that EU support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia will pull Romania into the war.
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The Russian Federation has announced the expulsion of two Romanian diplomats in response to the recent designation of Russian diplomats in Bucharest as personae non gratae.
A far-right candidate is projected to win the first round of Romania’s presidential election rerun in May, a survey shows. However, centrist Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan is expected to prevail in the final round, keeping Romania on its pro-European course despite rising nationalist rhetoric.
Romanian far-right politician and Russian supporter Calin Georgescu has refrained from endorsing any other candidate after being definitively barred from standing in May’s presidential election rerun.
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Estonia’s defense minister Hanno Pevkur says the U.S. will keep its 80,000 troops in Europe, calling bases like Ramstein and Naples crucial to NATO’s eastern shield and American power projection despite Washington’s growing Indo-Pacific focus.
Mark Carney walked into the Prime Minister’s Office on Wellington Street Tuesday morning, his first official act after steering the Liberals to a decisive election triumph and reclaiming the reins of Canada’s government.
Estonia’s defense minister Hanno Pevkur says the U.S. will keep its 80,000 troops in Europe, calling bases like Ramstein and Naples crucial to NATO’s eastern shield and American power projection despite Washington’s growing Indo-Pacific focus.
Mark Carney walked into the Prime Minister’s Office on Wellington Street Tuesday morning, his first official act after steering the Liberals to a decisive election triumph and reclaiming the reins of Canada’s government.
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed Tuesday to enhance economic and defense cooperation, affirming their opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas through force or coercion.
At the Three Seas Initiative summit, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković briefed reporters after talks with leaders from 11 Central- and Eastern-European states, underscoring regional cooperation on energy.
Meta is launching its first-ever AI developer conference, LlamaCon, on Tuesday, aiming to re-engage the developer community and spotlight the company’s Llama family of open AI models.
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