the Constitutional Court orders a recount of the votes of the first round

This decision comes after the surprise qualification of a pro-Russian far-right candidate and the elimination of the Prime Minister.

A twist coming in Romania? The Romanian Constitutional Court ordered, Thursday, November 28, a recount of the votes of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, which saw the surprise qualification of a pro-Russian far-right candidate and the elimination of the Prime Minister . The court, seized of a request for cancellation of the vote by another candidate, “unanimously ordered the verification and recount of all ballots”according to a press release.

This candidate, Cristian Terhes, a far-right MEP who came in ninth position, accuses one of the parties of having continued to campaign online after the authorized deadline. He believes that this may have favored Elena Lasconi, centrist mayor of a small town, who came in second place and qualified for the second round, at the expense of social democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

She will face in the second round, on December 8, the other surprise of the election, Calin Georgescu, a far-right candidate who admires Russian President Vladimir Putin and is opposed to aid to Ukraine. This impeccably dressed 62-year-old anti-vax technocrat was able to convince with a campaign on TikTok that went viral, focused on the need to stop all support for kyiv.

The Constitutional Court also rejected another appeal, received “lately”which denounced the opaque funding of Calin Georgescu's campaign.

Demonstrations against his candidacy held every evening since Monday in the capital, Bucharest. These results caused a shock wave in the Eastern European country of 19 million inhabitants. Neighboring Ukraine, this member of the EU and NATO had until now resisted nationalist positions, distancing itself from Hungary or Slovakia. Before the second round of the presidential election, voters will go to the polls on Sunday for the legislative elections.