Calin Georgescu, an unexpected pro-Russian candidate, leads the first round

The surprise is total in Romania. According to results covering 99% of the ballots counted, the independent pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu came first in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, November 24. Another surprise: the pro-European Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who was nevertheless given as a favorite, is on the verge of being eliminated in the first round, according to the almost final results published Monday morning by the Electoral Commission.

The liberal was demoted to third position with 19.16% of the votes cast, just behind Elena Lasconi, center-right mayor of a small town, with some 700 votes difference. If the trend continues, she would therefore qualify for the second round against Mr. Georgescu (22.94%).

When the polls closed early Sunday evening, the exit polls nevertheless gave the head of the social-democratic government in the lead ahead of Elena Lasconi, center-right mayor of a small town. “The scores are very close, it is not yet time to celebrate”had warned this 52-year-old former journalist converted to politics, ultimately credited with 18.84% of the votes. Also calling for caution, Mr. Ciolacu, 56, thanked his voters, while asking to wait for the complete count to know who he will face on December 8.

The breakthrough of Mr. Georgescu, 62, as well as that of George Simion (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians), fourth with 13.94% of the votes, is an upheaval for this country of 19 million inhabitants which has until here resisted nationalist postures, distancing itself from Hungary or Slovakia. The President of the Romanian Republic occupies an essentially ceremonial function but he exercises an important moral magisterium.

“The Romanian people shouted for peace” in Ukraine

“Tonight, the Romanian people cried out for peace. And he shouted very loudly, extremely loudly.”reacted Mr. Georgescu, who owes his score to a TikTok campaign that went viral, focused on the need to stop aid to Ukraine. This non-party candidate ran for election as an independent.

Mr. Simion, whom some polls before the first round had placed in the race for the second round, has already congratulated Mr. Georgescu, rejoicing that a “sovereignist” finds himself in the second round. This big fan of Donald Trump, aged 38, has already promised “two more battles”during the legislative elections of 1^is December and a week later for the second round of the presidential election.

After ten years in power of Klaus Iohannis, a fervent supporter of kyiv who became very unpopular due in particular to his costly trips abroad financed with public money, the Romanians have therefore set their sights on anti-system candidates, against a backdrop of rising ultra-conservative movements in Europe.

Romania, which shares a 650-kilometer border with Ukraine and is bordered by the Black Sea, plays a strategic role « vital »recalls in a study the New Strategy Center think tank, both for NATO, of which it houses more than 5,000 soldiers, and for the transit of Ukrainian cereals.

The social democrats, heirs of the former communist party which has structured the country’s political life for more than three decades, currently govern in coalition with the liberals of the PNL.