Hundreds of students gathered in downtown Bucharest late Monday to protest against a pro-Russian politician who rocked Romania’s political establishment winning the first round of the presidential poll.
Demonstrators held banners reading: “No fascism, no war, no Georgescu in the second round” and “Calin Georgescu never president”. They chanted: “If we are together we save the country from Georgescu.”
Calin Georgescu, a hard-right critic of NATO who has praised Russia is set to face a reformist opposition leader Elena Lasconi in the December 8 presidential election run-off that could derail Romania’s pro-Western position after the shock outcome in Sunday’s first-round vote.
Georgescu had been polling in low-single digits before the vote, and ran an under the radar campaign, driven by social media platform Tik Tok.
In response to Georgescu’s TikTok strategy, the students used online platforms to organize their protest, attracting hundreds of participants.
The independent hard-right Georgescu, 62, won 22.94% of votes in the vote while center-right mayor,Elena Lasconi, leader of the opposition Save Romania Union, lay second with 19.18%.
