On Sunday it became known that the Romanian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) rejected the candidacy of the presidential candidate Călin Georgescu in a vote of 10 to 4 on the grounds that he does not meet the legal conditions to be a candidate in a decision against which an appeal to the Constitutional Court is possible.
The CEC explained in a later document that the reason for the rejection of Georgescu’s candidacy was based on the decision of the Constitutional Court of 6 December, which considered the same ‘inadmissible’. ‘The Constitutional Court issued an implicit and binding judgment in general for non-compliance with the conditions provided by law for the registration of candidacy…Once the electoral process has been restarted, the same person cannot fulfil the conditions to be appointed President of Romania’, they argued.
This is illegal; they cannot avail themselves of a decision of the Constitutional Court, as the Constitutional Court decision did not mention Georgescu’s explicit name to suspend the presidential elections for the second round. Also, the most incredulous thing about this is that some said they voted against it out of ‘conscience’. What kind of judge can suspend a candidacy for such a tremendously ridiculous reason? Besides being ridiculous, it is something that should be punishable. You can’t suspend someone’s candidacy for purely emotional reasons; this kind of decision seems to come out of a banana republic.
‘Our great sovereignist movement is the biggest danger to the globalist hydra’
Georgescu: ‘This is just the beginning’
‘It’s a direct blow to the heart of world democracy! I have only one message: if democracy in Romania falls, the whole democratic world will fall! This is just the beginning—it’s that simple! Europe is now a dictatorship! Romania is under tyranny!’
I had the opportunity to talk to George Simion, leader of AUR, the second-largest party in Romania, about what had happened. ‘The corrupt establishment trembles at the slightest tremor of dissent. We anticipate the worst: attempts to intimidate us, summons for interrogation, or even detention—events that have transpired previously. This is how a police state works,’ Simion opined.
He continued with the latest news that several AUR MPs are under investigation. ‘In fact, five AUR MPs were today summoned to the Public Prosecutor’s Office’, Simion declared. Finally, he concludes that today will be the crucial day to know whether there is still some democracy in Romania, or on the contrary, it has fallen. ‘The next hours and days are critical for our future as a state, but also for Europe. Our great sovereignist movement is the biggest danger to the globalist hydra.’
According to information from Romanian investigative journalist Iosefina Pascal, Romanian police are taking fingerprints from Sunday’s protesters, even peaceful ones, to identify them. Also, Anca Alexandrescu, one of the most important journalists who has always been on Georgescu’s side, has said on her Facebook account that she has been called to the prosecutor’s office to testify; she still does not know why.
What Can We Expect?
Today at 4pm (5pm according to Romanian time), the Constitutional Court will meet to decide whether Călin Georgescu’s appeal is approved or dismissed. They are expected to have several hours to determine what their final decision will be; although it may be postponed until tomorrow, they are expected to make a decision today.
‘Anything could transpire, yet one thing remains certain: this is an endeavour by Brussels to assess the response’
Nobody knows what will happen. There are two scenarios. One, they finally let Georgescu run. If that were to happen, he would surely win both the first and second rounds, as all surveys show him at least 40 per cent in the polls. However, another possibility is the dismissal of Georgescu’s appeal and his candidacy being cancelled.
The second option would lead to more questions, such as: what would happen then? Everyone says that George Simion, leader of AUR, will run for president. Although he has always said from the very beginning that he did not want to run, and he repeated this to me several times in an interview I had with him, as he sees that the position rightfully belongs to Georgescu. However, suppose they end up suspending Georgescu’s candidacy, and he explicitly and publicly asks Simion to run for the presidency. In that case, there is a possibility that he will end up running since there is time to present another candidacy until this Friday. If Simion wins—the polls put him in the lead—, he would have a more challenging time than Georgescu, but he could choose Georgescu as prime minister since the prime minister-elect does not have to be currently a deputy.
Anything could transpire, yet one thing remains certain: this is an endeavour by Brussels to assess the response. Let’s not forget that there are elections in Poland in May of this year and Donald Tusk’s government has already started arresting Law and Justice (PiS) deputies. There have also been investigations that show that USAID and EU funds interfered in the recent parliamentary elections in Poland. We must be very careful because this could set a dangerous precedent for the future.
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