Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana has been forced to deny he is using disinformation as part of his bid to become Romania’s next president.
His denial came after an online attack on rival Nicolae Ciuca was linked to Mr. Geoana’s campaign team, Romanian television station Romania’s Digi24 reported on Tuesday. In August, there were similar style attacks on another presidential candidate considered to have a chance in the race, Elena Lasconi also possibly linked to Mr. Geoana.
The latest attack is a parody of Mr. Ciucă’s book, “A Soldier in the Service of his Country”, which is renamed “A Postman in the Service of the Country.”
The mock-up book is laced with attacks on Liberal chairman, Nicolae Ciuca, who served as Army Chief of Staff, defense minister and prime minister.
Digi24.ro claimed the smear came from Mircea Geoana’s team, something the former NATO official strongly denied.
Mr. Geoana is considered a frontrunner for the presidential ballot on Nov. 24 with a runoff two weeks later if no candidate wins a majority.
Digi24.ro said the domain “unpostasinslujbatarii.ro” (a soldier in the service of his country) was registered by a private citizen limiting access to information on the identity of the person. It revealed that the anonymous person who registered the domain and sent emails to newsrooms from “[email protected]” has clear links to Geoana.
Companies from the Sociallite group have spent thousands of lei this year sponsoring posts on social media connected to “The “Romania 2030 Project” and the “Renaissance Foundation” of which Geoana is chairman, Digi24.ro reported.
The site also has a Facebook page visited by thousands of people. Digi24.ro reported posts on the page “A postman in the service of the country” were sponsored and cost thousands of lei.
The “mirceageoana.ro domain, Mr. Geoana’s official website was registered in 2018 by a company in which Ioana Mateş, chairperson of the “Romania 2030 Project”, was a patronsuntil 2023. Leo Media Consulting (formerly New Machiavelli Communications) works with Mircea Geoana’s campaign team, according to Digi24.
Mr. Geoana pushed back against the allegations.
“My campaign team and I are categorically against practices of spreading false information publicly with the aim of discrediting my electoral rivals (…) If I become the president of Romania, I will make it a priority to fight against online disinformation,” he told Digi24.ro.
At the end of August, a website called elenausrescu.info/elenaceausrescu.info was registered by a private individual. The site is used to attack another presidential candidate, Elena Lasconi.
The content of this site has been spread by several Facebook pages that share content in various local groups which have hundreds or even thousands of members. These pages also shared the content of the “unpostasinslujbatarii.ro” website in various Facebook groups, linking the two attacks,Digi24.ro said.
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