By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News
BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Romania’s pro-Russia politician Călin Georgescu confirmed Monday he had appealed against the country’s Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) decision to bar him from participating in May’s presidential election, a move that led to riots in the streets of Bucharest.
Constitutional Court judges were to meet on Tuesday afternoon local time to discuss Georgescu’s appeal, and a final ruling was expected the same day.
The BEC rejected his candidacy on Sunday after a 10-4 vote, arguing it did not “meet the conditions of legality,” as Georgescu “violated the very obligation to defend democracy.”
Last year, the court annulled November’s first round of the vote—in which Georgescu came first—after intelligence claimed that Russia was involved in 800 social media platform TikTok accounts backing him.
In his appeal, Georgescu said that the “BEC exceeded its legal powers.” He also stressed that the constitutional court’s decision on the November election should not affect his candidacy for the upcoming vote in May.
In a social media post, Georgescu called the ban a “direct blow to the heart of democracy worldwide.”
The electoral bureau’s decision sparked unrest in Bucharest on Sunday evening. Clashes broke out between police and Georgescu supporters who had gathered in their thousands outside the offices of the BEC.
VIRAL VIDEOS
Despite being relatively unknown in mainstream politics, Georgescu skyrocketed to fame through his viral TikTok videos.
He shocked Romania’s political establishment when he won last year’s ballot’s first round of voting. Still, just before the second round, the electoral commission declared the election invalid, citing the alleged Russian interference.
Moscow arguably likes Georgescu as he condemned a U.S. missile defense system based in Romania, campaigned for ending Romanian aid to Ukraine, and called for “Russian wisdom” in shaping foreign policy. He is skeptical about Romania’s membership of the NATO military alliance and the European Union.
Georgescu, 62, has also been criticized for far-right views, including calling Romania’s Jews persecuting figures Corneliu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu “national heroes.”
Codreanu was a far-right Romanian politician who led the ultranationalist and violently antisemitic Iron Guard in the 1930s while Romanian leader Antonescu facilitated the Holocaust, or Shoah, in Romania before he was tried for war crimes and executed in 1946.
Expressing public support for these and other sympathizers of the Iron Guard, a pre-World War II fascist and antisemitic movement and political party, is illegal under Romanian law.
Yet the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump has raised questions about banning Georgescu from elections, saying it could undermine freedom of expression.
MUSK ANGRY
Elon Musk, the famed U.S. billionaire-turned-presidential adviser, responded to a Swedish journalist’s post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, about Romania’s banning Georgescu from running for president, writing: “This is crazy!”
He and U.S. Vice President JD Vance previously criticized the Romanian government’s decision to cancel a re-run election.
Musk also spoke out in February when Georgescu was briefly detained by authorities, saying on X: “They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election. This is messed up.”
Georgescu has denied the charges against him, which included “anticonstitutional acts” and “misreporting” his finances. The charges also revolved around his support for sympathizers of the Iron Guard.
Georgescu’s questioning was part of a nationwide police action that involved raids against 27 individuals under investigation for crimes such as “anti-constitutional actions” and possession of “illegal weapons caches.”
Individuals were also charged with instigating racism, fascism, and xenophobia and “promoting a cult of personality accused of genocide and war crimes.”
These issues remain sensitive in Romania, which has a recent turbulent history with wars and a post-war dictatorship. In 1989, the country toppled dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who had run the nation with an iron fist for decades. He and his wife, Elena, were executed by firing squad on Christmas Day, 1989, following a brief and controversial trial.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice and FBI have officially concluded there is no evidence that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, blackmailed powerful elites, or kept a hidden “client list,” according to a two-page memo obtained by Axios. The findings, based on a years-long federal investigation, aim to silence long-standing conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody.
In a pivotal development for the region, Lebanon’s new leadership has submitted a detailed response to a U.S. proposal aimed at disarming Hezbollah and de-escalating hostilities with Israel. The plan, delivered last month by U.S. special envoy Thomas Barrack, outlines a four-month timeline for Hezbollah’s full disarmament in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a cessation of airstrikes.
The BRICS bloc of emerging economies issued a pointed yet cautious declaration Sunday condemning rising global tariffs and foreign attacks on Iran, while notably avoiding any direct criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump—despite his announcement of an additional 10% tariff on nations aligning with what he termed “Anti-American policies of BRICS.”
President Donald Trump is entering a decisive week in his global trade push, aiming to finalize several long-delayed deals before a major round of tariffs hits dozens of U.S. trading partners. With a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariff policy set to expire July 9, Trump has vowed to escalate pressure on foreign governments — not just with levies, but with a wave of formal notices set to begin Monday.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance Saturday since the outbreak of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, emerging during a somber Ashura ceremony in Tehran after weeks of seclusion that raised questions about his health and security.
Israel launched a series of airstrikes overnight targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, after a suspected Houthi drone boat assault on a commercial ship in the Red Sea. The IDF confirmed the strikes as part of a new military campaign dubbed Operation Black Flag, aimed at crippling Houthi terror infrastructure and curbing the group’s maritime threat.
Some 27 campers and counsellors are dead after flooding at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp in the U.S. state of Texas that had encouraged young people to maintain faith in Christ.