Right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu has taken the lead in opinion polls ahead of new presidential elections in Romania
Calin Georgescu, the right-wing frontrunner in November’s first round of Romania’s presidential election that was then annulled, is taking the lead ahead of the new balloting scheduled for May, a fresh survey suggests.
A critic of NATO and the EU and a staunch opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, Georgescu topped the first-round vote in November with 22.94%, beating liberal leftist and social democrat candidates. Romania’s Constitutional Court promptly annulled the election ahead of the second-round vote, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in Georgescu’s performance.
According to the survey conducted by pollster Avangarde, Georgescu is expected not only to retain the leading position but actually to perform better than during the scrapped election. The poll sampled some 1,354 Romanians, representing various social and age groups, and was conducted between January 10 and 16.
The candidate is now projected to get 38% of the vote – against some 23% he secured last time. Georgescu’s approval in the survey is followed by Crin Antonescu, the likely single candidate of the pro-EU coalition government, who is projected to get 25% of the vote, and, with some 17% of respondents favorable, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who said he could end up running as an independent.
It remains unclear whether Georgescu would be actually allowed to run for office again in the May polls.
His shock November win caused a political meltdown in Romania, prompting a barrage of assorted allegations against the right-wing hardliner. The 62-year-old, who ran his campaign largely through TikTok, faced allegations that his bid was funded by foreign actors, presumably Russia.
None of the claims, however, were backed by any solid evidence, while preliminary findings of an investigation into the election scandal found the campaign “irregularities” were likely a psy-op bankrolled by the pro-Western National Liberal Party (PNL).
On Tuesday, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected an appeal lodged by Georgescu, who demanded that it overturn the domestic court decision to annul the election results. The ECHR threw out the case altogether, ruling the issue was outside of its remit.
