Russia’s hybrid war against Romania nearly led ‘to the capture of the Romanian state’, a top sociologist has said.
Remus Ștefureac, who is the director of the INSCOP Research polling agency, was asked in an interview about the meteoric rise of former presidential election candidate, Calin Georgescu, who unexpectedly won the first round of presidential elections in Nov. 2024.
Romania canceled the election following intelligence reports of Russian meddling in the election. Moscow has denied interference.
Russia is accused of artificially inflating Georgescu via the popular Chinese app, TikTok in a sophisticated campaign, two weeks ahead of the vote that largely went undetected. TikTok has confirmed unusual activity that swayed the vote in Mr. Georgescu’s favor.
“Our democracy, I have said it many times, was literally brought to its knees, and the state has been almost captured by an adversary, Russia, in a hybrid war and informational assault,” Mr. Ștefureac said.
“ What happened in Romania is already documented – there is, for example, the Prosecutor General’s file, and information transmitted by TikTok, a company owned by the Chinese state, that is, it is not data transmitted by Europeans or Americans, but by Chinese,” Remus Ștefureac told EuropaFM radio.
However, the alleged meddling cannot totally explain the popularity of Calin Georgescu and another populist former presidential candidate George Simion who lost the May presidential redo to Nicusor Dan.
“George Simion and Calin Georgescu did as well as they did not declare themselves pro-Russia, because they (actually) hid this in the electoral campaign. They obtained the scores they did because they had a very harsh anti-corruption message,” and spoke about government incompetence, he said.
Romanian prosecutors on Sept. 17 charged Mr. Georgescu, of plotting a violent coup aided by Russian-backed militaries.
The charges are linked to a police operation in December 2024 after the presidential election was canceled when officers intercepted 21 people, some carrying knives and guns, heading to Bucharest to allegedly overthrow the government. Some of the indicted have links to Russia, General Prosecutor Alex Florenta said in an interview with Antena 3.
Sociologist Remus Ștefureac said that Romanians were looking for alternatives. He pointed out that polls show that 51% of Romanians would be willing to vote for a new party in the next elections, precisely because they want “competent people, who are highly skilled.”
