Călin Georgescu has friends in high places. In the past few weeks the Romanian presidential hopeful has received support from America’s vice-president, J. D. Vance, and its director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard—as well as from Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR.
Electoral authorities will decide by March 19th whether Mr Georgescu can run. He thinks that the moon landings were faked, and admires Romania’s fascists from the 1930s. More concretely, he vows to end aid to Ukraine. Before the election he was considered a fringe no-hoper; the big parties were stunned when he got 23% of the vote. In scrapping the result, the court ruled that he had received illegal financing and implied that Russia had boosted his viral videos on TikTok.
Romanians are bitterly divided. The establishment backs the court’s action, but both the populist right and many citizens fed up with politics support Mr Georgescu. Romania’s foreign partners are split, too. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, supported the court. But officials in Donald Trump’s administration, including Mr Vance, Ms Gabbard and Elon Musk, have rebuked the Romanians—in concert with Russia’s SVR, which on March 4th called Mr Georgescu a victim of the “European totalitarian-liberal elite”. The next day Romania expelled Russia’s military attaché and arrested six people for “plotting to take over state power”.
Candidates for the presidential re-run must register by March 15th. Remus Ștefureac, who heads INSCOP, a polling firm, says Mr Georgescu leads the field with a share of up to 40% in the first round. He might still lose in the second round, if he is allowed to run. In October the court barred another pro-Putin candidate, Diana Șoșoacă, saying her statements threatened Romania’s EU and NATO memberships.
Romania’s biggest parties, the centre-left Social Democrats and centre-right National Liberal Party, are backing a joint presidential candidate. But Mr Georgescu’s popularity and the conflicting signals from America and Europe put them in a bind. Romanian leaders are always solicitous of America, says Rufin Zamfir of the GlobalFocus Centre, a think-tank. But now they are “like headless chickens”.
An event today [yesterday at the time of this post] made the majority of Romanians have a great laugh or facepalm, bewildered: six guys, led by a 101 year old retired general, were arrested by cops for planning a coup d'etat with the help of Russia. They would have changed society from its foundation, even renaming the country into Getaeia.
Sadly, what constituted a big joke for Romanians was taken very seriously by the rest of the globe and that was the purpose of this, to fuel the ongoing war between the EU, Washington and Moscow, our country being, as usual, cannon fodder, always ready to cut the branch from under its feet for a pat on the back from Brussels.
The day began with the story that 6 people were detained for preparing a coup since 2023 allegedly wanting to end Romanian sovereignty and turn it into a Russian protectorate. One of them, retired gen. Radu Theodoru and a few others, created a comical new Romania on a website. This isn't something new but this drew enough attention that this small group caused all of the state's law enforcement agencies: DIICOT, SRI, DGIA, DIPI, collaborate to take these people down. (...)
The press release given by DIICOT had a number of buzzwords which journalists had to pick up and report on: "coup d'etat" , "military reservists", "Russia"; add to it the story that Romania expelled two Russian diplomats and you can paint a picture that "grave things" are happening in Romania.
In Romanian press, the order was clear: this whole story needs to be treated seriously and the authorities must be praised for their "bravery" and "vigilance" with the narrative "Russia wants to take over Romania using the scum of society". After all, what more evidence does one need to keep justifying that Romania "is in its greatest danger since the end of WW2", that cancelling elections was justified even without proper evidence? That is what France through Emmanuel Macron said last night, that Russia interfered in Romania's elections. Former commissioner, Thierry Breton, also French, said that it was very good that the elections were cancelled and that they must be cancelled any time every time. French intel agencies said that Georgescu had behind him "occult forces".
Well, how can you contradict these people? And Romania is doing everything it can to confirm their claims without evidence. It expels Russians, it arrests evil centenarians, it creates a lot of smoke without fire, betting on the naivety of the foreign press, which trusts everything that comes out of Bucharest, never crossing their mind that a democratic state can invent crap of cosmic proportions. They are unaware of the typology of the Romanian politician, who is ready for anything and everything.
Let's remember how after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime, foreign press was telling how the Ceaușescu couple had sinks made of gold, that they were bathing in the blood of babies, that they were throwing away clothing after single use, that they had one billion in secret bank accounts etc. a puff of smoke meant to hide that the ”revolution” in Romania was getting rid of a bunch of commies to install a new set of commies.
Macron and Ursula can celebrate after today [yesterday]'s arrest: they received from the heroes of the Romanian people the "evidence" that Russia, America's new friend, is keenly interested to take over other countries besides Ukraine. This serves to cement that their fight to continue the war in Ukraine is not without hope".
"Călin Georgescu was, just a few months ago, a fringe ultranationalist known to few people even in Romania.
Today he is riding high for the second time in the country’s presidential contest, enjoying the active backing of not just Moscow but Washington, and defiantly resisting another attempt by the authorities in Bucharest to keep him out of power.
Georgescu’s journey from soil engineer to far-right politician, Covid conspiracy theorist and social media sensation has led some politicians in his country to suggest lasting links with the communist-era secret police and Russia.
Crin Antonescu, a joint candidate for the pro-European coalition parties in the May presidential election, called him a “ghost” of Romania’s feared spy agency during the cold war, the Securitate.
“He is a ghost of the former Securitate, he has the discourse of the Securitate, he has probably the support of the old Securitate,” Antonescu said last month. “It is absolutely shameful that 35 years after a revolution against communism and against the Securitate, we are now faced with a huge mirage and a lie.”
Despite pressure from both the US and Russia, Bucharest seems intent on barring the 62-year old self-described “sovereigntist” from running. Two people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times his presidency bid was likely to be thrown out because of the criminal probe."
When he left the courthouse where he was taken for questioning, Georgescu performed a Nazi salute.
His contacts with Russian nationals, including pro-war hardliner Alexander Dugin, are currently not the subject of the criminal probe, said a senior Romanian official.
If Romania brings charges against Georgescu, it will be “defending its sovereignty”, the official said, adding that the administration in Bucharest was aghast at the support he is receiving from the US.
Asked whether Georgescu may have been a former secret service agent, Romania’s body overseeing the Securitate archives (CNSAS) said it found no evidence of his recruitment.
"The SVR's analysis that the charging of Călin Georgescu came at Brussels' order is more than a metaphorical bomb. The analysis is not meant for the prosecutor on the case, Marius Iacob, not for the prosecutor general, Alex Florența, not for the interim-president, Ilie Bolojan, not for the premier Marcel Ciolacu or the minister of internal affairs, Cătălin Predoiu.
The analysis is meant for Brussels and Ursula von der Leyen! The SVR potentially has evidence to back up their claims meaning that this isn't an opinion anymore but a warning. It is obvious, after all, that Brussels wants to install a progressist-sorosist president in Romania instead of a sovereignist-trumpist
The same way the SMS between Ursula and the CEO of Pfizer, the conversations held behind seven sets of locks, represent the evidence of the great deal of the pandemic to the benefit of the Americans using Europe's money. Someone has those conversations but it is keeping them secret. When the pandemic was dying down, other European authorities were beginning to press Ursula on the vaccine deal. The European Parliament was demanding a hearing on this matter but just as the COVID-19 vaccine deal was becoming more mainstream, let's remember how the Qatargate scandal popped up and, suddenly, the European Parliament lost interest in questioning Ursula.
The U.S., led by Joe Biden at the time, has recorded every transaction and knows who received money from whom. Qatargate was a warning from Washington: "don't get near our partner", and they never dared to make Ursula uncomfortable again and they voted Ursula for a 2nd term.
It is evident that the SVR's analysis will be interpreted by the adversaries of Călin Georgescu as an endorsement from Russia. Perhaps Russia finds him more convenient in Romania than the alternatives. Georgescu's enemies should be focused on something else though: endorsements come not just from Russia but also the US, the US who supports him and denounces the December 6th coup d'etat.
This is dangerous for them because, by the looks of it, Russia and the US are about to enter a love-tandem, and they are denouncing the coup d'etat meanwhile the pseudo-power called "the EU", who is attacking Georgescu, is in free fall and with the EU falling so will the sorosists. It is no wonder that Georgescu is attacking the EU more often and harsher. He noticed weakness in the EU or someone told him that he has his back covered.
Washington and Moscow are aligning behind Georgescu and this is the source of his confidence and relaxed nature, usually defiant in the face of Romanian authorities. We were writing recently that it would be a catastrophe if the May elections would not be recognised by the US. How would it be if neither Russia or other allies, like Hungary and Slovakia, not recognise the results?
The regime in Bucharest is playing dangerously with fire but some of their behaviour leads one to believe that they are simulating a witch hunt to please Brussels because we cannot find a serious explanation for Georgescu's charges and the evidence brought against him which is pathetic".