Romanian Elections&Politics (Presidential election-type event: May 4th/GEORGESCU ARRESTED)

[jaichind]

Well, congrats to PSD-PNL for canceling the election! Private polling has begun being conducted, and Georgescu (at least in the two polls I've seen) has over 40% for the first round, with 3 candidates (Antonescu, Dan, Lasconi) statistically tied for second at 10-15%. The second round is a bloodbath no matter who his opponent is. It seems increasingly unlikely the luxury unemployed and career sociopath Crin Antonescu will even make it to the ballot box, as he seems to have caught wind that PSD will not in fact back him and used him as a negotiation tool, and thus his deep state handlers had him "suspend" his candidacy.
 

https://www.replicaonline.ro/sondajul-care-il-transforma-pe-crin-antonescu-in-ldquo-noul-cirstoiu-rdquo-614466

Was this one of those polls?  It seems to have Georgescu at 39%

[RGM2609]

Well, congrats to PSD-PNL for canceling the election! Private polling has begun being conducted, and Georgescu (at least in the two polls I've seen) has over 40% for the first round, with 3 candidates (Antonescu, Dan, Lasconi) statistically tied for second at 10-15%. The second round is a bloodbath no matter who his opponent is. It seems increasingly unlikely the luxury unemployed and career sociopath Crin Antonescu will even make it to the ballot box, as he seems to have caught wind that PSD will not in fact back him and used him as a negotiation tool, and thus his deep state handlers had him "suspend" his candidacy.
 

https://www.replicaonline.ro/sondajul-care-il-transforma-pe-crin-antonescu-in-ldquo-noul-cirstoiu-rdquo-614466

Was this one of those polls?  It seems to have Georgescu at 39%

I meant polls that weren't published, this one is probably made up by clown Cosmin Gusa, but it is generally in line with what I've seen

[oldtimer]

Well, congrats to PSD-PNL for canceling the election! Private polling has begun being conducted, and Georgescu (at least in the two polls I've seen) has over 40% for the first round, with 3 candidates (Antonescu, Dan, Lasconi) statistically tied for second at 10-15%. The second round is a bloodbath no matter who his opponent is. It seems increasingly unlikely the luxury unemployed and career sociopath Crin Antonescu will even make it to the ballot box, as he seems to have caught wind that PSD will not in fact back him and used him as a negotiation tool, and thus his deep state handlers had him "suspend" his candidacy.

At this point, the field is a mess, even as we still don't know on what grounds the election was canceled and as Iohannis is illegally hanging on to power. The election won't even take place until May, or so I'm hearing. For the mafia parties, it seems like Ciolacu will attempt another candidacy, but it remains to be seen whether PNL will accept him or they'll press to stick with Antonescu and find some other puppet. The "reformists" are locked in a huge battle of egos as Nicusor Dan, using Lasconi cozying with PSD between rounds and being generally incompetent, is trying to settle his scores with the ones who took his party from him. For the far-right, it seems clear that Georgescu is the man to rally around (through SOS probably won't), but if he is barred from running by our almighty Constitutional Court, hell breaks loose, as Simion flopped and Sosoaca is also on the Court's blacklist. The two people most likely to replace Georgescu, in that case, are far-right actor Dan Puric and the former Dragnea loyalist turned TV trumpet Anca Alexandrescu, but it's all really unpredictable. And of course, there's also Victor Ponta, clearly up to something, through whether he's trying to be PSD's candidate or run as a "sovereignist" is still unclear.

I guess this first with Nixon's dictum "if you hear about a stop X movement, put your money on X"

It's even better when it originally was "help X" and now they've quickly changed course into "stop X". But I guess it doesn't matter as much now that the government has been appointed, which was the main power of the Presidency.

Since I have a suspicion that no further elections will take place in Romania, in order for them to remain in power for life, I have 2 questions:

1. What happens when they die in office ?
2. How do vacancies in Parliament or the Presidency get filled ?

[RGM2609]

Well, congrats to PSD-PNL for canceling the election! Private polling has begun being conducted, and Georgescu (at least in the two polls I've seen) has over 40% for the first round, with 3 candidates (Antonescu, Dan, Lasconi) statistically tied for second at 10-15%. The second round is a bloodbath no matter who his opponent is. It seems increasingly unlikely the luxury unemployed and career sociopath Crin Antonescu will even make it to the ballot box, as he seems to have caught wind that PSD will not in fact back him and used him as a negotiation tool, and thus his deep state handlers had him "suspend" his candidacy.

At this point, the field is a mess, even as we still don't know on what grounds the election was canceled and as Iohannis is illegally hanging on to power. The election won't even take place until May, or so I'm hearing. For the mafia parties, it seems like Ciolacu will attempt another candidacy, but it remains to be seen whether PNL will accept him or they'll press to stick with Antonescu and find some other puppet. The "reformists" are locked in a huge battle of egos as Nicusor Dan, using Lasconi cozying with PSD between rounds and being generally incompetent, is trying to settle his scores with the ones who took his party from him. For the far-right, it seems clear that Georgescu is the man to rally around (through SOS probably won't), but if he is barred from running by our almighty Constitutional Court, hell breaks loose, as Simion flopped and Sosoaca is also on the Court's blacklist. The two people most likely to replace Georgescu, in that case, are far-right actor Dan Puric and the former Dragnea loyalist turned TV trumpet Anca Alexandrescu, but it's all really unpredictable. And of course, there's also Victor Ponta, clearly up to something, through whether he's trying to be PSD's candidate or run as a "sovereignist" is still unclear.

I guess this first with Nixon's dictum "if you hear about a stop X movement, put your money on X"

It's even better when it originally was "help X" and now they've quickly changed course into "stop X". But I guess it doesn't matter as much now that the government has been appointed, which was the main power of the Presidency.

Since I have a suspicion that no further elections will take place in Romania, in order for them to remain in power for life, I have 2 questions:

1. What happens when they die in office ?
2. How do vacancies in Parliament or the Presidency get filled ?

Well, I do believe that elections will eventually take place, but given what we've seen in the past few months, they won't be "free and fair" by a long shot. But, to address your questions, first of all, both Iohannis and Ciolacu are reasonably young, so it's hard to see them suddenly dying, but in a vacuum, they'd just be replaced by some other mafia puppets, they aren't important by themselves. When it comes to vacancies, in Parliament, if a seat gets vacated, the mandate goes to the next candidate in the original party list from the last election, however, the new MP taking office also has to be validated, so in theory the majority could block any opposition vacancy being filled. As for the President, in theory the Chairman of the Senate takes office as Acting President and new elections have to be held in a reasonable amount of time. However, seeing as Iohannis is already serving illegally as Acting President, it's clear that it's not set in stone.

[RGM2609]

Here is Georgescu's last Facebook post, a good example of his post-election rhetoric (which helped him get to over 40%):

For days the Romanian people have been in the streets demanding that their constitutional rights be respected and restored!
For this reason, I recommend all Romanians to file a criminal complaint for election fraud in Romania on the following grounds:
- Alfred Simonis and Marcel Ciolacu self-reported on TikTok about the embezzlement of government funds!
They have confirmed what we all suspected: that PSD voted for G. Simion to send him to the second round of elections. They mistakenly believed that if Ciolacu and a sovereignist candidate were to get into the second round, the people would choose Ciolacu. The people turned their calculations upside down, being, as usual, much smarter than the politicians.
- Also, just a few weeks ago, ANAF found out that PNL invested money in image campaigns aimed at manipulating the electorate's voting intention, paying campaigns on TikTok for other candidates, NOT for the candidate of their party (N. Ciucă) as it was legal!
- PSD-PNL used the party subsidy allocated from Romania's budget (almost 54 million euros) to manipulate the elections in Romania, promoting other candidates, but NOT those of their own parties.
I repeat! I recommend that Romanians file a criminal complaint for election fraud in Romania, misappropriation of government funds, and continuous fraud!

As President-Elect of Romania, I inform the following institutions:
▪️ The Parliament must immediately annul the dictatorial mandate of Klaus Iohanis, this architect of democratic chaos throughout the free world!
▪️ The General Prosecutor's Office must investigate the election fraud by PSD, PNL, Klaus Iohanis, and the Constitutional Court.
▪️  The People's Attorney must intervene urgently to restore the order of law by all means at its disposal or to resign if it cannot represent the people following their FUNDAMENTAL rights.
▪️ The self-styled "ciolacu2" government is illegal, illegitimate, and immoral just like Klaus Iohanis.
I can assure you that from the first days of my mandate this political pack - which is tearing apart democracy and the rights of the Romanian People - will be destroyed!

[RGM2609]

A month has passed and what do we have?
- No official explanation about the election annulment.
- No promising investigation or anyone responsible identified.
- Not even a clear timetable for future elections.
Instead, we have "rumors" that we may vote in May or June, or who knows when. Even Ilie Bolojan is suggesting that the deadline could be pushed to summer.
Why bother with democracy anyway? Let Iohannis stay in the Cotroceni for good. The Constitutional Court would have no problem putting the crown on his head and legitimizing everything.

Until then they remain in power and we are left with questions:
1. We do not yet have evidence of Russian involvement. But we have proof of PSD and PNL's participation in the rise of the sovereignist parties, so were PSD and PNL involved in this outcome after all?
2. If Călin Georgescu has a circle of sponsors, and legionaries with ties to Russia, who we are told were preparing violent actions in Bucharest, why are they walking free? Why aren't they arrested? Why were those detained after the confiscation of their weapons released?
3. If we have no concrete evidence, why were the elections canceled? Why was the first round validated in the first place? Why did the presidential administration say it had no evidence of Russian involvement in the first round?
4. If the presidential election was so marred by Russian interference that it had to be canceled altogether, why weren't the parliamentary elections that were between the 1st and 2nd rounds of the presidential election canceled? Didn't the Russians get involved there? Or did the right people win?
5. Why did the "sovereignists" still vote for the presidents of the chambers and the Ciolacu 2.0 government?
6. Is it normal for Marcel Ciolacu and PSD to admit that they distorted the voting process, transferring hundreds of thousands of votes to George Simion, and not be indicted?
And so many other questions.

[Mike88]

The government set the new dates for the election: First round to be held on 4 May, with a runoff "expected" on 18 May.

[RGM2609]

The government set the new dates for the election: First round expected to be held on 4 May, with a runoff on 18 May.

Wrong, these are the dates:
First round - 4th May,
Runoff - we'll see depending on the first round.

[Mike88]

The government set the new dates for the election: First round expected to be held on 4 May, with a runoff on 18 May.

Wrong, these are the dates:
Firrst round - 4th May,
Runoff - we'll see depending on the first round.

Well, yeah, although I think that this time, whatever the result is, it will go ahead.

[#UnbanTender]

The government set the new dates for the election: First round expected to be held on 4 May, with a runoff on 18 May.

Wrong, these are the dates:
Firrst round - 4th May,
Runoff - we'll see depending on the first round.

Well, yeah, although I think that this time, whatever the result is, it will go ahead.

Yeah because it will be an Iranian style election where all the candidates will have been ideologically vetted before being allowed to stand.

[RGM2609]

The government set the new dates for the election: First round expected to be held on 4 May, with a runoff on 18 May.

Wrong, these are the dates:
Firrst round - 4th May,
Runoff - we'll see depending on the first round.

Well, yeah, although I think that this time, whatever the result is, it will go ahead.

Yeah because it will be an Iranian style election where all the candidates will have been ideologically vetted before being allowed to stand.

They're vetted by being with the mafia or not. I wouldn't bet my house on the election being cancelled because they were scared of Georgescu and not of...you know, the other candidate.

[jaichind]

If Georgescu is not allowed to run will Simion or someone from AUR run with the endorcement of Georgescu or will Georgescu he banned from endorsing another candidate?

[RGM2609]

If Georgescu is not allowed to run will Simion or someone from AUR run with the endorcement of Georgescu or will Georgescu he banned from endorsing another candidate?

I don't see how he could be banned from endorsing someone else. But should he not run, I think it's likely for the far right (maybe without SOS) to rally behind some figure not directly associated with any of the parties, than behind an AUR partisan candidacy. Simion running again after he flopped in November seems especially unlikely, given he's starting to lose control over the party.

[RGM2609]

Other than the increasingly brash (and increasingly FF, coming from someone who initially despised her) Lasconi, all non-far-right forces have rallied behind the illegal Iohannis regime. Meanwhile, the AUR-POT protests turn out to be the largest post-pandemic. Looks like the mafia parties are doing a great job fighting with extremism!

[RGM2609]

Today, the government rushed to adopt the legislative framework for the May elections, already late with the decision and in a credibility hole with Western partners, who have put Romania in a diplomatic semi-quarantine until Bucharest can clearly explain what happened in November. Everything was done by emergency ordinance, without consultations, without decisional transparency, without anything.

The problem is that beyond setting the voting days, a matter of pure political expediency, the Ciolacu government once again received by fax things that it did not understand but signed on order. Just as they sign everything sent to them by the generals who slept in slippers during the autumn campaign, but now they play heroes in front of the West for fighting the Russians and sponsor press articles to create an atmosphere in this direction. In short, where is the stupidity in today's OUG. In fact, the stupidity:

1. The services and political consultants forgot to explain to Ciolacu that EU states do not have the competence to fine large social networks (VLOPs) at this level of severity. Only the EU Commission can do it, according to the DSA (Digital Service Act) regulation. In other words, like in November, TikTok will laugh in our faces as it did then with the orders issued by the BEC because we have neither jurisdiction nor enforcement instruments. The kind of penalties announced today by the prime minister are completely disproportionate and can never be applied, remaining just a campaign speech by a politician who is rhetorically toying with Crin Antonescu.

2. More seriously, those behind him have had Ciolacu stamp an Orwellian expansion of the definition of political campaign, so that any post by a private citizen on Facebook that seems to go in the direction of a candidate (for example, posts his picture) is framed as a campaign and subject to drastic rules of financing and legal sanctioning, tougher in Romania than in other states. And it's not about Meta blocking you, as one or the other has been complaining about until now, but it's about the police and prosecutors coming at you with the Criminal Code, like in Turkey, China, etc. Goodbye freedom of expression, hello Soviet-style censorship by deterrence: draconian but vague laws, followed by arbitrary and selective application.

3. And in perfect continuity with the incompetent blunder of November, the authors of the ordinance, which passed like wildfire through the government today, omitted the brilliant provision that voting takes place between 7:00 and 21:00 Romanian time, meaning it ends at 19:00 in the London precincts, 14:00 in those in New York and 11:00 in California. From what we hear, this was the idea of ​​the Permanent Electoral Authority, although no motivation or explanation has been published regarding the problem that is being tried to be solved in this way: voting has also been linked to local time in the past, there have never been any disturbances or protests and it is not clear in what way this would be a measure to combat online disinformation. Even if people in the diaspora vote from Friday to Sunday, this kind of time zone gap cannot stand in a state with a Constitutional Court in its right mind. So, it will probably be fine here.

[Flyersfan232]

Today, the government rushed to adopt the legislative framework for the May elections, already late with the decision and in a credibility hole with Western partners, who have put Romania in a diplomatic semi-quarantine until Bucharest can clearly explain what happened in November. Everything was done by emergency ordinance, without consultations, without decisional transparency, without anything.

The problem is that beyond setting the voting days, a matter of pure political expediency, the Ciolacu government once again received by fax things that it did not understand but signed on order. Just as they sign everything sent to them by the generals who slept in slippers during the autumn campaign, but now they play heroes in front of the West for fighting the Russians and sponsor press articles to create an atmosphere in this direction. In short, where is the stupidity in today's OUG. In fact, the stupidity:

1. The services and political consultants forgot to explain to Ciolacu that EU states do not have the competence to fine large social networks (VLOPs) at this level of severity. Only the EU Commission can do it, according to the DSA (Digital Service Act) regulation. In other words, like in November, TikTok will laugh in our faces as it did then with the orders issued by the BEC because we have neither jurisdiction nor enforcement instruments. The kind of penalties announced today by the prime minister are completely disproportionate and can never be applied, remaining just a campaign speech by a politician who is rhetorically toying with Crin Antonescu.

2. More seriously, those behind him have had Ciolacu stamp an Orwellian expansion of the definition of political campaign, so that any post by a private citizen on Facebook that seems to go in the direction of a candidate (for example, posts his picture) is framed as a campaign and subject to drastic rules of financing and legal sanctioning, tougher in Romania than in other states. And it's not about Meta blocking you, as one or the other has been complaining about until now, but it's about the police and prosecutors coming at you with the Criminal Code, like in Turkey, China, etc. Goodbye freedom of expression, hello Soviet-style censorship by deterrence: draconian but vague laws, followed by arbitrary and selective application.

3. And in perfect continuity with the incompetent blunder of November, the authors of the ordinance, which passed like wildfire through the government today, omitted the brilliant provision that voting takes place between 7:00 and 21:00 Romanian time, meaning it ends at 19:00 in the London precincts, 14:00 in those in New York and 11:00 in California. From what we hear, this was the idea of ​​the Permanent Electoral Authority, although no motivation or explanation has been published regarding the problem that is being tried to be solved in this way: voting has also been linked to local time in the past, there have never been any disturbances or protests and it is not clear in what way this would be a measure to combat online disinformation. Even if people in the diaspora vote from Friday to Sunday, this kind of time zone gap cannot stand in a state with a Constitutional Court in its right mind. So, it will probably be fine here.

what the deal with the ban on telling people vote or not on social media i heard about?

[jaichind]

https://www.intellinews.com/poll-reveals-dominance-of-far-right-presidential-candidates-in-romania-362021/

"Poll reveals dominance of far-right presidential candidates in Romania"

If Georgescu does run for the presidency, the poll shows support for the controversial far-right candidate on 50%, putting him on the threshold of a first-round victory. Without Georgescu in the race, fellow far-right politician George Simion would come out on top but with only 35% of the vote.
In both cases, former prime minister Victor Ponta, who has increasingly embraced nationalist rhetoric despite being a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (PSD), would face the frontrunner in the second round of the election. 

Sounds like they will need to find a way to ban both Georgescu and Simion

[RGM2609]

what the deal with the ban on telling people vote or not on social media i heard about?

It's an absurd rule that, on the day before the election and the election day itself, people aren't allowed to post anything about the election on social media or they'll commit fraud. I remember Moldova once canceled an election for this exact absurd reason. It was sort of already in place, as before the first round, random Average Joes posting pro-Lasconi content on Facebook were getting calls from state authorities while the TV stations were openly campaigning for Ciolacu.

[RGM2609]

https://www.intellinews.com/poll-reveals-dominance-of-far-right-presidential-candidates-in-romania-362021/

"Poll reveals dominance of far-right presidential candidates in Romania"

If Georgescu does run for the presidency, the poll shows support for the controversial far-right candidate on 50%, putting him on the threshold of a first-round victory. Without Georgescu in the race, fellow far-right politician George Simion would come out on top but with only 35% of the vote.
In both cases, former prime minister Victor Ponta, who has increasingly embraced nationalist rhetoric despite being a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (PSD), would face the frontrunner in the second round of the election.

Sounds like they will need to find a way to ban both Georgescu and Simion

However, the sponsor of the poll, Romania TV, is reportedly controlled by Sebastian Ghita – a fugitive businessman who has been indicted in several corruption files at home. Ghita is a close associate of Ponta.

TLDR: The poll is a propaganda tool.

However, this fake poll aside, Georgescu is riding high right now, though maybe closer to 40% than 50%. Should he be barred from running, I doubt Simion will be his replacement, and if he is, he will fail to unite the far-right around him and flop once again. But, it's clear that, no matter what and who gets taken out, a far-right candidate will be in the second round.

[RGM2609]

The illegal Iohannis regime, which is composed of the rogue secret services, the "mainstream" parties which are actually confederations of criminal interests held together by the captured state, and the press bought and controlled by the aforementioned two groups, has crashed Romania's democracy by failing to provide any meaningful details of what was so wrong with Georgescu's first round campaign, especially as they clearly helped him before Ciolacu got locked out. So, in the spirit of fairness, I will try to explain what we know about Georgescu's campaign, mostly from press investigations, and obviously, what we still don't. Here is what we know:

1. The Romanian prosecutors got multiple documents from the Permanent Electoral Authority that show the spending on behalf of Georgescu's first-round presidential campaign. They say that Georgescu got 2 million votes while spending ZERO, without even going out on the street, without a party (openly) behind him. Harris should take lessons from this guy! I mean, the documents were clearly fraudulent. However, this was no problem for the PSD-PNL captured state before the first round, and right now it doesn't seem like anyone is seriously investigating this.

2. Georgescu was helped by a South African marketing agency called FA Agency. This agency contacted influencers by email and offered a payment of 1000 euros for sharing a video supporting Georgescu. The main headquarters of this enterprise were located in Poland. After the election was canceled, the FA Agency erased all of its online tracks, even its employees' Instagram accounts. So, a South African agency operating from Warsaw is paying Romanian influencers to post videos supporting extremist Calin Georgescu. There is nothing shady here, lol.

3. There's also the Russian firm AdNow, which has reprofiled from anti-vax disinformation to pro-Georgescu propaganda. It first became famous during the pandemic, with its massive anti-vaccine, COVID-denying campaign in countries like France and Germany. It especially seemed against the "Western" vaccines, and favorable to the Russian Sputnik. AdNow was now used to influence the Romanian election, by backing Georgescu with anti-vax, nationalist, and conspiracist propaganda. The founder of AdNow is Julia Serebryanskaya, who worked for Putin and Medvedev's presidential campaigns and then was a communication director for United Russia. AdNow has given at least 2 million dollars to news cesspools Romania TV and Realitatea Plus, conspiracist influencers, and far-right websites. Is the Iohannis regime doing anything to stop this?

4. The propaganda machine around Georgescu has bought/transformed various Facebook and TikTok pages with already large followings. In what is probably the funniest example, they took a FB page called "Romanian Hot Girls" with 800K followers and turned it into "Orthodox Romania". Must have been a big change for their followers lol. Another one called "Manele" (Romania's trashy music) was turned into "My Romania". Meta has allowed the sharing of over 4100 political ads against Lasconi and in favor of Calin Georgescu through 25 Facebook pages which seemed to be distinct entities but were connected through shared infrastructure and content. TikTok has also found some 4000 fake, bot accounts backing AUR/Georgescu.

So this is the evidence, which I've tried to present in full to the best of my ability and knowledge. None of this was discovered or used by the Iohannis regime but rather uncovered by the media against the government's defeating silence. It does seem like the election was interfered with, for sure certain aspects of Georgescu's campaign were illegal, but what PSD-PNL have done: canceling the election with little justification, keeping Iohannis as President, somehow reinvesting Ciolacu, has done nothing but boost the far-right they're supposedly fighting with. If they actually wanted to fight extremism, they should not have boosted it in the first place and not sabotaged Lasconi's second-round campaign. But I supposed they weren't just afraid of Georgescu winning.

In other news, if anyone wanted my prediction, I bet yesterday that the second round in May would be between two women. I doubt it will come to pass, as my predictions seldom hit the mark, but I guess we'll see.

[jaichind]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-21/pro-russian-candidate-leads-romanian-poll-ahead-of-may-ballot?embedded-checkout=true

"Pro-Russian Candidate Leads Romanian Poll Ahead of May Ballot"

Georgescu would win 38% of the votes if elections were held next Sunday, followed by the joint candidate of the current ruling coalition, Crin Antonescu, at 25%, according to the survey by the Avangarde polling company. 

Why are they bothering to poll Georgescu ? I thought he has been barred from running in May ?

[RGM2609]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-21/pro-russian-candidate-leads-romanian-poll-ahead-of-may-ballot?embedded-checkout=true

"Pro-Russian Candidate Leads Romanian Poll Ahead of May Ballot"

Georgescu would win 38% of the votes if elections were held next Sunday, followed by the joint candidate of the current ruling coalition, Crin Antonescu, at 25%, according to the survey by the Avangarde polling company. 

Why are they bothering to poll Georgescu ? I thought he has been barred from running in May ?

He hasn't been barred, nor is there a procedure to do that yet. He would need to collect signatures, file for a candidacy, and then the Constitutional Court will decide whether to ban him or not.

[RGM2609]

It seems that after the PSD-PNL cartel decided to embolden the far-right by illegally maintaining the widely despised Iohannis to the Presidency and the hapless idiot Ciolacu to the Prime Ministership, now they are going with the ultimate defiance and actually nominating a political corpse in the May elections. While it did seem, for some brief moments in December, that the luxury unemployed Crin Antonescu would be discarded by the deep state that maneuvers him, now they are going full steam ahead with this idiotic idea of running with him. In a funny little tidbit, Antonescu actually proposed Georgescu as Prime Minister back in 2011, calling him an "expert with solid ideas"

The best way of stopping Georgescu (other than, of course, not creating him in the first place) was for PSD-PNL to place all their power behind Lasconi during the runoff. But, of course, they couldn't do that, since Lasconi was also not part of the mafia that controlled Romania post-Revolution and was dangerous to the political and economic interests behind the government. Now, I don't see how Georgescu could lose. The only way is through the genius Constitutional Court, which might once again come in to make order in Romania by now banning the presidential frontrunner from running in the election. If that happens, the far-right vote might be split between multiple candidates: Simion, who seems like he wants to run again; Sosoaca, now turning fully against Georgescu and might be allowed to run even though she was banned from running the first time; Anca Alexandrescu, a corrupt TV host who Georgescu's organization backs and, of course, "Mickey Mouse" Ponta, another corpse back from the dead.

Speaking of Ponta, we Romanians have to bear his nasty presence once again, as he is on tour on all TV channels, all but announcing he will run for President, with the backing of fugitive and owner of trashy news channel Romania TV Sebastian Ghita, who seems to be behind this exhumation. His hopes of being PSD's candidate were dashed when the party went with his former ally Crin Antonescu, and now has rebranded as a "sovereignist", a lane he picked on early when he was the only PSDer to publicly back Georgescu over Lasconi in the simulated runoff campaign.

Meanwhile, the liberals are doing what they do best: infighting. Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan is, pretty arrogantly, trying to brush aside Lasconi with the backing of most USR splinters and ex-USRers. For all her flaws, Lasconi does seem to have one major quality: stubbornness. So I doubt she will accept to quit, no matter what the real opinion polls have to say (not the trash made public), and the only way she'll be out of the race is through the hearse. I don't either of them stands a chance of entering the second round as long as the other one is still running, however, giving away for a morbid for Romania Antonescu vs far-right runoff.

[jaichind]

[jaichind]

https://www.romania-insider.com/calin-georgescu-calls-boycott-supermarkets-romania-february-2025

"Far-right politician Călin Georgescu calls for boycott of supermarkets in Romania"

Georgescu  is organizing a boycott of, mostly foreign owned I assume, supermarkets in favor of local mom and pop stores which are more likely to have locally produced products.