Romanian prosecutors opened a criminal case on Wednesday against ultranationalist politician Călin Georgescu, who won the first round of the country’s annulled 2024 presidential election.
Georgescu was stopped by police in Bucharest traffic and taken to the Prosecutor General’s Office for questioning. Prosecutors announced they were carrying out 47 searches of people and associations, including those of a group led by Horațiu Potra, Georgescu’s security chief and a former mercenary, linked to Georgescu in a wider criminal investigation on suspicion of several potential offences, including campaign funding fraud and acts against the constitutional order.
Prosecutors allege Georgescu supported sympathizers of the Iron Guard, a pre-World War II fascist and antisemitic movement that is illegal under Romanian law. Georgescu was also questioned about the financing of his meteoric and polarizing political campaign last November. Authorities are investigating his campaign finances after he declared “zero expenses” despite widespread social media promotion. The 2024 election saw the far-right figure surge to victory with 23 percent of the vote before Romania’s Constitutional Court abruptly canceled the results. Declassified intelligence pointed to a sophisticated Russian-backed operation to support Georgescu, leveraging TikTok algorithms and undeclared funds to boost his campaign — a charge Georgescu has fiercely denied.
Georgescu’s supporters, including members of the far-right Party of Young People, gathered outside the Prosecutor General’s Office to protest. After leaving the prosecutor’s office, Georgescu called the investigation a politically motivated attack. “We are the people, we are the power. We will not kneel before anyone,” he stated. On social media, he accused the Romanian government of staging a “formalized coup d’etat” to prevent his participation in the May election rerun. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu defended the judiciary’s independence stating that the law must be applied regardless of persons. US Vice President JD Vance criticized Romania’s judicial actions at the Munich Security Conference, saying, “When we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.” Tech mogul Elon Musk echoed this sentiment, calling Romania’s Constitutional Court judges “tyrants.”
Romania was plunged into political chaos after the court annulled the first-round results of the 2024 election, which Georgescu had won. The ruling was met with backlash from both far-right parties and pro-EU reformists, who accused establishment parties of manipulating the judiciary to retain power. The new election is scheduled for May 4, with a runoff on May 18. Elena Lasconi, who was set to face Georgescu in the canceled runoff, warned that barring him from running could further inflame an already volatile political landscape. As international scrutiny intensifies, Romania’s upcoming election is set to be a crucial test for the country’s democracy.
