Far-right candidate is poised to win a shock victory in the Romanian presidential election
A far-right, pro-Russian candidate is set to score a shock victory in the first round of Romania’s presidential election, with preliminary results leaving the prime minister, his main pro-European rival, out of the running. race.
With more than 99% of votes counted, ultra-nationalist Calin Georgescu is leading by nearly 350,000 votes over centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-favourite. election, in third place.
The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no political party and campaigned mainly on the social networking platform TikTok, was the biggest surprise of the election.
Lasconi is now on course to challenge Georgescu in the final on December 8.
According to the latest figures, Lasconi leads Ciolacu by more than a thousand votes.
This would leave Ciolacu, a charismatic figure who would continue Romania’s pro-Western path, out of the race.
Opinion polls released earlier on Sunday showed Ciolacu leading and predicted Lasconi would take second place.
Political commentator Radu Magdin said Georgescu’s support was unprecedented, with previous opinion polls showing him with only about 5% of the vote.
“Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a spike compared to surveys,” Mr. Magdin said.
Georgescu, who is not affiliated with any party, has vowed to end what he calls subordination to the European Union and NATO, especially support for Ukraine. He condemned NATO’s ballistic missile defense shield in Deveselu, Romania.
The campaign has largely focused on rising living costs, with Romania having the largest proportion of EU citizens at risk of falling into poverty.
Another nationalist, George Simion, who was predicted to take fourth place, threw his weight behind Georgescu in the early hours of Monday.
The President in Romania has a largely symbolic role but has significant influence on areas such as foreign policy.
Voter turnout was 51%, similar to the figure five years ago.
