Romanian presidential election scandal: how the EU should respond to Russian interference

On December 6, Romania's Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the presidential election. Then, the pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu came in first place, and the pro-European Elena Lasconi came in second. Now the entire electoral process will have to be held again. 

Annulment of the first round of the presidential election in Romania

The second round of the presidential election in Romania with the participation of candidates Călin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi was supposed to take place on December 8. Local media write about the Kremlin's trail, which promoted the pro-Russian candidate Georgescu. 

The Constitutional Court made its decision after the publication of declassified intelligence documents. They suggest that the election campaign of the far-right pro-Russian candidate Georgescu was carried out with support from abroad.

President of Romania Claus Iohannis made a special address regarding the annulment of the first round of voting results.

“The new Romanian government will set new dates for the two rounds of the presidential elections. So, a new parliament will be convened again, a new government will be elected. And the new government will determine when new presidential elections will be held. According to the Constitution, the President of Romania exercises his powers until the newly elected President is sworn in. Therefore, I remain in my position until the election of a new President of Romania”, — explained Iohannis.

The President stressed that Romania is a stable and safe country.

“I say this for the European Union. Romania was and remains a safe, pro-European country. I say this for NATO. And Romania remains a reliable ally”, — Iohannis added.

The Constitutional Court's decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The Romanian Prosecutor General's Office reported on December 9 that a search had been conducted at the home of TikTok blogger Bogdan Peschira, who is accused of illegally financing the election campaign of presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, bribing voters, and money laundering. $7 million was seized from Peshkir, as well as computer equipment.

Romanian law enforcement officers believe that the blogger may have obtained money through criminal means, which he used to finance Georgescu's election campaign. According to the investigation, Bogdan Peschir donated over 1 million euros to him. TikTok officially confirmed that from October 24 to November 24, he transferred 381 thousand euros to accounts that encourage the far-right candidate.

On November 24, the first round of presidential elections was held in Romania. 13 candidates applied for the position. The far-right anti-Western politician Calin Georgescu (who does not represent any party), gaining almost 23% of the vote, and the representative of the opposition “Union for the Salvation of Romania” Elena Lasconi, for whom a little more than 19% of the country's citizens voted.

Also on December 1, the country held parliamentary elections. The leading pro-European Social Democratic Party, led by the current Prime Minister Marcel Çolak, won. In second place was the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians. The centrist opposition party “Union for the Salvation of Romania” rounds out the top three.

Expert Opinions

What results should we expect from the new presidential elections in Romania? How should the European Union respond to election interference and prevent such cases? What danger do modern technologies pose to democracy? The answers to these questions were sought on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel:

• Lyudmila Pokrovshchuk, Doctor of Philosophy, expert on foreign and domestic policies;
• Igor Chalenko, political scientist;
• Olexandr Leonov, Executive Director of the Center for Applied Political Research “Penta”.

LYUDMYLA POKROVSHCHUK: The victory of the far-right candidate may affect relations between Ukraine and Romania

— We have seen how the elections to the European Parliament were held in other European countries. We see that the trend towards the use of various social networks is increasing. Given the situation with the elections in Romania and in Europe in general, states will revise their internal laws regarding the election process with the use of various social networks and artificial intelligence, which is currently actively developing. It turned out that we are not ready for this and this is a huge challenge. The national electoral system is not ready for this and something needs to be done about it. 

I think that initially at the European level the legislation will be adjusted, there will be recommendations on how to conduct elections taking into account new technologies that are very manipulative, and with their help it is possible to influence the electoral process. All states now need to adjust their internal framework taking into account the need to be ready.

Russia will continue its destructive activities. Other countries may appear that want to manipulate the electoral process. Now this is the main challenge for national legislation — regulate it regarding the technologies used in the electoral process. The Supreme Council of National Defense of Romania, having analyzed all the documents, concluded that there was interference from Russia and that this was a threat to national security.

In Ukraine, we have already come to the point that we will also adjust our legislation, relying on the experience of European partners and taking into account hybrid challenges. The greatest danger of information warfare is that it cannot be tracked and detected at the stage when it happens — we can only see the consequences. But you need to learn to act in advance. 

I think TikTok will be banned in Romania at the time of the elections, given the current situation. And the European Union must necessarily take some measures, taking into account the fact that the EU always reacts to interference in the election process, — freedom of choice is very valuable for them. 

Elena Lasconi has already announced that she will participate in the new elections. Or, maybe, some unifying and powerful candidate will be nominated from the left, who will be able to defeat the right-wing Călin Georgescu even in the first round. That would be very good. Now all efforts are needed to ensure that the left-wing candidate wins. Some forecasts say that after the New Year we will understand for sure who will be the president of Romania. 

The victory of an ultra-right candidate in the presidential elections is not good for Romania and Europe, as well as for Ukraine. Instability may come to our well-established relations with Romania. We have export through Romanian ports and this is very important. 

IGOR CHALENKO: Romania has nominated a single pro-European candidate

— The Russian Federation is investing huge amounts of money using modern technologies. In fact, it is building horizontal communication, bypassing all possible elements of information protection in the respective states and giving the green light with its propaganda to those candidates who are beneficial not only in terms of rhetoric and the corresponding propaganda theses, but also in terms of real destabilization of the situation. 

Moreover, this is happening not only in individual countries, for example, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, but also in the geopolitical region as a whole. The main emphasis is on breaking alliance relations and actually creating the prerequisites for restoring its zones of influence. If during the Soviet Union such a large zone of influence was the Warsaw Pact Organization, now the Russian Federation is dreaming of restoring its lost geopolitical wealth. 

The current situation in Romania is somewhat reminiscent of the events of 2004 in Ukraine. This is a rather mirror historical quote. Only then did the Supreme Court of Ukraine support the annulment of the election results in Ukraine, and in Romania, the Constitutional Court did so, publishing the justification for the annulment of the results of the first round of presidential elections in the country. 

Now Romania is facing another vote, and this time, every effort will be made to ensure that this situation does not happen again. I think that additional legislative regulations will most likely be enacted regarding social media, including TikTok. Since this topic was a de facto gap in the Romanian election campaign. 

After the formation of a pro-European coalition following the results of the parliamentary election race, I assume that most likely a single pro-European candidate will be nominated who will be able to realize all the electoral potential that exists in Romania today and will be able to seize the palm of victory. 

Celin Georgescu will most likely not participate in this election campaign. In the elections in Romania, the decision should be made only by the Romanian people, freely and honestly. Only Romanians have the right to determine who they elect in their country. 

OLEKSANDR LEONOV: The EU should develop a mechanism to protect against interference in elections

— The annulment of the election results in Romania – is the first systemic response to interference in the electoral process. Previously, people learned about this after the fact and there were no reactions. Now the point is that the European Union is looking for and finding a tool to prevent anyone from influencing the election result. Candidate Călin Georgescu, who won the first round, received his preferences virtually from the hands of Russia and China. 

We know that China and Russia are trying to influence the European Union and are looking for opportunities to change the situation in individual countries. This is necessary in order to influence both the sanctions regime and military aid to Ukraine. Further, the European Union should take steps to unify the response to such cases. So far, in the EU, apart from banning Russian propaganda TV channels, nothing systemic and serious has been done yet. 

Candidate Călin Gheorghescu was not very well known in Romania. He participated in political life, ran for various elected positions, but did not have serious success. As for his victory, there were two components – external assistance and the disunity of pro-European forces in Romania, which were in conflict with each other. I hope that this lesson will be taken into account and in the repeated first round they will be able to agree on a single policy or even a single candidate.

The EU should now study the experience of Romania and unify European legislation. It is obvious that electoral manipulation can be repeated in any other country in Europe. Regulating social networks like TikTok is quite difficult, since their control center is outside the scope of the laws of both the European Union and the United States. Long negotiations are needed, so there must be mechanisms to protect against what distorts the very principle of democracy.