Romania's parliamentary vote risks being overshadowed by presidential race chaos

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Hundreds of protesters gathered in Bucharest after a far-right populist unexpectedly won the first round of a presidential race, plunging Romania into turmoil just days before the country holds parliamentary elections. “Better to be dead than a fascist,” one placard reads.

Sunday's ballot will determine a new government and prime minister to lead the European Union and NATO member country. However, the vote is sandwiched between the two rounds of the presidential race and is overshadowed by controversies and chaos following the outcome of the first vote.

Despite polling at less than 10% before the first round, a far-right politician who has praised Romanian fascist leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin won the most votes in the Nov. 24 ballot. Calin Georgescu is due to face reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a Dec. 8 runoff.

“He’s pro-Russia, pro-Putin, and we, the people — and especially the young people — we are supporting democracy,” said Sebastian Marin, an 18-year-old student who attended a protest on Wednesday in the capital. “It’s really important for people to mobilize.”

Georgescu's success, which many have attributed to his rapid rise in popularity on the social media platform TikTok, has triggered nightly protests throughout Romania by those who oppose his past remarks and view him as a threat to democracy.

According to a report by Expert Forum, a Bucharest-based think tank, Georgescu’s TikTok account has had an explosion which it said “appears sudden and artificial, similar to his polling results.”

Without naming Georgescu, who declared zero campaign spending, Romania’s top defense body said on Thursday that “a presidential candidate benefited from massive exposure due to preferential treatment" granted by TikTok. Romania has become a “priority target for hostile actions” by Russia, it added. The Kremlin denies it is meddling.

The same day, the Constitutional Court requested a recount of all 9.4 million votes after a former presidential candidate who obtained 1%, lodged a complaint alleging the Save Romania Union had violated electoral laws against campaign activities on polling day. The Central Election Bureau approved the request and said scanned reports were due to be sent in by 10.00 p.m. Sunday. On Friday, the court postponed a decision until Monday on whether to annul the vote.

Opposite the government headquarters, people of all ages, but mostly young people, could be heard chanting: “Democracy saves Romania!”

“I find it a bit worrying that these elections are so close together,” Andrei Ienculescu-Popovici, a 28-year-old computer programmer, told The Associated Press. “At the moment, almost no one talks about the parliamentary elections … it has become a non-topic.”

He said he is suspicious of the unprecedented decision to recount the vote, which pro-democracy groups and Save Romania Union have complained is not transparent enough. “These are strange and unprecedented times for our young and fragile democracy ... this move will probably only benefit the extreme right-wing parties,” he said.

A protest in Bucharest on Friday organized by the “Corruption Kills” community, demanded “that the votes be recounted with independent observers and cameras” and accused the Constitutional Court of “once again attacking democracy” in the interest of a specific party.

It is the first time in Romania’s 35-year post-communist history that the leftist Social Democratic Party did not have a candidate in a presidential runoff. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned as party leader after he lost to Lasconi by a wafer-thin 2,740 votes, and Nicolae Ciuca also resigned as leader of the center-right National Liberal Party after obtaining just 8.7%.

While the presidential role in Romania has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security and foreign policy, the prime minister is the head of the nation’s government. Sunday’s vote will determine the formation of the country’s 466-seat legislature.

“The most important vote is the parliamentary one, not the presidential one, they decide who really runs the country,” said Ienculescu-Popovici. “We were perceived as being one of the most stable and trustworthy allies, and I fear current events might unravel that.”

Since 2021, Romania’s two biggest parties — the Social Democrats and the National Liberal Party — formed an unlikely coalition, which has become bitterly strained. A small ethnic Hungarian party exited the cabinet last year following disputes over a power-sharing agreement.

Like many countries throughout Europe or even the U.S., anti-incumbency sentiment is running high in Romania, which has experienced high inflation and cost of living, has a large budget deficit, and a sluggish economy. It has bolstered support for far-right populist parties.

Recent surveys have suggested the top three parties in Sunday’s race will be the PSD; the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, and the PNL. After rising to the political scene eight years ago on an anti-corruption ticket, the Save Romania Union's popularity has waned in recent years but could garner the next most votes.

More minor parties that may not pass the 5% threshold to enter parliament include the pro-EU reformist REPER party and the liberal-conservative Force of the Right. Some have predicted that the far-right nationalist S.O.S Romania party, and the recently formed and little-known Party of Young People, which has backed Georgescu, could pass the threshold.

Romania's Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja told the AP: “Nobody saw this coming … and I mean nobody.” He added that the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians gaining more power in parliament after Sunday’s race, and Georgescu winning the final presidential vote, “is a very real concern.”

After the unpredictable presidential vote and the confusion surrounding it, many political observers are reluctant to predict the outcome of the parliamentary vote.

Claudiu Tufis, an associate professor of political science at the University of Bucharest, says Sunday’s vote could see strong anti-establishment turnout for far-right populism, which could win as much as 30-40% of the ballot and “polarize the population even more.”

“People who voted for Georgescu seem to really enjoy the victory in this first round ... they have a lot more courage to say who they are and be proud of their vote," he said. “We’ve had people who are really angry at the governing party, and they voted for the opposition, only this time, the governing parties were actually the two main parties.”