A dramatic decision by Romania’s Constitutional Court to cancel the presidential election runoff saved ‘Romania from the Russians’, a former US ambassador to Romania said.
Adrian Zuckerman, who served as Donald Trump’s envoy from 2019 to 2021, praised the court’s decision Friday afternoon which came after Romanians had already started voting overseas. “I think they saved Romania from the Russians,” he said.
Mr. Zuckerman, who speaks fluent Romania, called it:”A good decision, what happened here was a coup by one state against another state.”
The Constitutional Court on Friday decided to cancel the first round of presidential election after the declassification of Romanian intelligence reports showed the involvement of Russia in influencing voters.
The first round on Nov. 24 saw a previously unknown far-right nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu top the polls in a shock result.
But intelligence reports released on Wednesday showed several illegal processes in Georgescu’s campaign financing.
New elections will be held at a date designated by the government.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the high court ruling was the ‘only solution’ following the declassification of the CSAT documents.
The runoff was due to be held on Sunday between Georgescu and Elena Lasconi, a reformist mayor who rebuked the court for annulling the vote.
“It’s a very good decision, in my opinion. I want to thank the Court for reaching this decision unanimously. I think they saved Romania from the Russians, from a Russian candidate, I called him ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ of the Russians….Nothing of this magnitude, of this sophistication has been seen before,” he told B1TV.
