Sarah Rainesford and Laura Gotzi
In Bucharest and London
EPA
People were waiting for a ruling outside the Romanian Constitutional Court
Romanian far-right populist Karin Georgek has lost his appeal against a ruling that barred him from participating in the May presidential election.
The Constitutional Court issued its final ruling Tuesday afternoon after two hours of deliberation.
The massive crowd gathered outside the Bucharest courthouse cried out “Traitors” and “We won’t go anywhere.”
The Central Election Bureau had previously refused Georgek’s candidacy for a rerun of the presidential election in May.
Georgescu won the first round of presidential votes last year, but it was disabled after intelligence revealed that Russia was involved in setting up 800 Tiktok accounts to support him.
On Sunday, the Election Bureau said Georgek’s candidacy “didn’t meet the criteria for legality” because “the exact breach of his obligation to defend democracy.”
Georgescu sued the verdict the following day.
Many protesters outside the court had Romanian flags covered their shoulders.
They chanted “Karin Georgek is president” and “freedom” and denounced the judge as a traitor. One woman had signs that read, “Stop the dictatorship.”
It took some time for news of a ruling in favour of the ban to reach the crowd. When that happened there was a big “booing” directed at the internal judges.
The crowd quickly became loud and angry, saying they came to the streets to protect their democracy.
The man they support, Karin Georgek, comes from the far-right boundaries of Romanian politics, but he is now on the forefront and is committed to making Romania great again.
Many Romanians believe he is corrupt and blocked by political elites far from the people.
The presidential election was cancelled after Georgek won the first round in November 2024. At that time, Intelligence was released, suggesting that Georjuk’s huge Tiktok promotion campaign was backed by Russia.
To European leaders and many in Romania, Russia seemed to weaken Europe and undermine its free value.
That’s the opinion of many Romanians who praise Vladimir Putin and fear men who hate NATO.
But on the streets of Bucharest on Tuesday evening, crowds were screaming about democracy and freedom. That is denied because they had demanded Georgek the right to vote.
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