Romania’s right-wing presidential frontrunner was barred from the race under criminal charges he compares to those President Donald Trump faced.
‘We are faced with a communist regime as well,’ Călin Georgescu, told Fox News Digital just before a Romanian electoral bureau barred him from running in a May presidential election rerun. Prosecutors opened a criminal case against him two weeks prior.
Chaos broke out in the streets of Romania’s capital, Bucharest, after the bureau announced its decision to bar the right-wing populist from the ballot. Georgescu was the top vote-getter in the results of the first election, which were annulled.
The charges against him stemmed from ‘communication of false information,’ involvement with a fascist organization and ‘incitement to actions against the constitutional order.’
‘They are trying to destroy democracy,’ Georgescu claimed. ‘They could not accept to lose the power and access to the money.’
He claimed Romanian authorities are trying to ‘censor all the online sites.’
Before emerging as a conservative political figure, Georgescu’s background was in sustainable development, and he worked on environmental issues at the United Nations.
Georgescu is now appealing the ban on his candidacy, which prompted U.S. leaders to comment on the drama. The Constitutional Court is expected to weigh in on his appeal by Wednesday.
‘How can a judge end democracy in Romania?’ Elon Musk asked in an X post on Monday.
The results of the first election were thrown out over accusations that Russia had launched a TikTok campaign to benefit Georgescu.
The turmoil earned Romania a shoutout from Vice President JD Vance in his speech at the Munich Security Conference.
‘You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage, even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.’
Georgescu thanked U.S. leaders for weighing in on his behalf, though he said he has not had contact with American government officials behind the scenes.
Georgescu denied that Russia was at play in the first election, and claimed he was not the ‘pro-Russian’ candidate.
‘I’m pro-Romanian. I have nothing to do with Russia,’ he said. Nevertheless, Russia has said any election without Georgescu would be ‘illegitimate.’
‘It has nothing to do with [Russia]. It’s just a copy paste of the accusations made against Donald Trump. It’s just they changed the name Trump.’
The politician has taken heat for describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a ‘man who loves his country.’ But he claims that critics twist his words advocating ‘peaceful settlement’ in the war on Ukraine because they are ‘allergic to the word peace.’
Georgescu has been critical of NATO and the European Union, and enthusiastically said he would cut off all aid to Ukraine if he took high office.
‘We shall stop totally all the contributions related with Ukraine,’ he said.
Georgescu, who was little-known until a social media campaign for his candidacy took off last year, is also charged with obscuring the origins of campaign financing.
Asked how he raised money for his campaign, Georgescu said: ‘The situation was very, very easy. I made the best of what I had… we established a strategy sent by social media and I said to the people, be free to do everything you want.’
‘The people in the moment when they realize they [can be] free… we won this point, because it’s a moment when the people are free, they can do miracles.’
‘They accuse me for different things, they are very strange and awkward, no evidence in any situation,’ said Georgescu, adding that he believes he is under investigation because ‘the oligarch system was exposed.’
Last week, Romania also expelled two military attachés with the Russian embassy. Their reason for expulsion was listed vaguely as taking part in actions that ran afoul of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Asked if Russian influence was an issue in his country, Georgescu said: ‘I don’t know anything about that. The only thing which I know, I know that we have to have very good relationships with our neighbors, extremely good relationships with the neighbors, and very good relationships with all the big countries, particularly, of course, with, with Russia, with the United States, with China.’
‘Of course, we cannot allow [anybody] to intervene in our country. This is all. But we have to have very good relationships with everybody.’
He declined to say whether he would pull Romania out of NATO.
‘The United States is the first partner,’ he said. ‘So whatever I have to do, whatever I wish to do, this is the main part which I recognize. The United States as a principle flag of democracy and freedom. And this is the principle partner which I’m looking for.’