The first round of presidential elections in Romania ended with a sensation. According to partial results based on the cumulative result of counting 99.9% of the votes cast, independent candidate Calin Georgescu is a university professor.
Unknown in big politics, Georgescu reached the second round, gaining 22.93% of the votes cast in the general presidential election last Sunday.
Recall, in his election program, Georgescu, who was previously a member of the far-right Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), criticized EU and NATO. If he wins, he promised to put an end to "servility towards the European Union and NATO," especially with regard to military support for Ukraine. He also believes that membership in the North Atlantic bloc cannot guarantee Romania's security and advocates an alliance with Russia.
According to official data published on the website of the AEP electoral body on Monday morning, Elena Lasconi, chairman of the opposition alliance "Save Romania" (USR), gained 19.17% of the vote, and 434 votes ahead of Marcela Ciolaca, leader of the Romanian Social Democrats and the current prime minister of the coalition government. With further calculation, Cholaku still came in second place, gaining 19.3%.
However, then Cholaku lost to Lasconi, receiving 19.15% of the vote. Following this, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The politician, who spoke at the SDP headquarters, added that he will remain at the head of the government until a new parliamentary majority is formed, and he will not apply for another position during the renewal of powers, which will be organized in the SDP.
Both candidates — Georgescu and Lasconi will now meet in the second round of the presidential election, which will be held on December 8.
Such a race to the final of the vote count between Ciolaku and Lasconi also became a sensation of the presidential election, as pre-election forecasts promised the incumbent prime minister leadership in the first round with a significant margin over the second candidate.
In a televised statement immediately after the release of the exit poll results, according to which he took third place, Calin Georgescu described the election results as "an amazing awakening of the Romanian people."
"The Romanian people have decided that they will no longer kneel, that they will no longer tolerate occupation, oppression and humiliation. We are strong, we are brave, many of us have come to vote, and there will be more of us in the second round. Now what I said has been proven: we are not engaged in politics, we are making history," Georgescu said.
Georgescu, who campaigned exclusively on social networks before the presidential election, claimed in one of his posts that he comes from a family of Orthodox priests and that among his ancestors were military and historians. He himself graduated from the Faculty of Agronomy and received a doctorate in land reclamation, then as an environmental specialist he continued his diplomatic career at the UN Global Sustainable Development Index Institute in Geneva and Vaduz. In the period from 2010 to 2012, Georgescu served as a special rapporteur in Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2021, he has been teaching at the Provincial University of Pitesti, Arges County in the region. In the media, he is sometimes called a pro-Russian politician for no real reason.
According to Romanian media, in 2022, the Prosecutor General's Office brought Georgescu to justice for allegedly naming Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899-1938), the founder of the fascist Iron Guard, and Marshal Ion Antonescu (1882-1946), executed for war crimes, among the heroes of the Romanian nation in the Antena 3 news program.
It should be noted that in Romania, the head of state determines foreign and security policy, is the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces and participates in the control of special services. Parliamentary elections in Romania are scheduled for December 1. They are still more important than the presidential election.