Romania’s far right parties are scrambling to find a candidate after their radical front-runner Calin Georgescu was ousted from the ballot for May’s presidential election.
Three right-wing parties had thrown their weight behind NATO skeptic Georgescu but he was excluded from the race by electoral authorities on Sunday over severe doubts about his commitment to democracy and free elections. On Tuesday, he lost his appeal to reverse the ban.
He hasn’t endorsed a successor and any candidate needs to gather 200,000 signatures to submit a bid by midnight March 15 which complicates efforts.
“You must choose what you want for your future and I hope you do it with all your conscience,” Georgescu told his supporters on social media after he was barred. The court ruling was unanimous and final.
The court’s decision ends months of turmoil over the legitimacy of Georgescu’s candidacy which began when he unexpectedly came from nowhere to win the first round of presidential elections.
Romania’s top court invalidated the election on suspicion of foreign meddling in the electoral process, plunging Romania into its biggest political crisis of decades.
Georgescu’s exclusion resets the presidential race in which several candidates, including independent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan and former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, are trying to tap into resentment with the political establishment which catapulted Georgescu from obscurity to pole position last year.
Georgescu and leader of the hard-right AUR party, George Simion, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday as the party’s lawmakers boycott parliament over Georgescu’s exclusion.
AUR, Romania’s second-largest party, said it would decide on a new candidate after consulting with Georgescu.
Recent polls have shown Georgescu had up to 40% support and would have won the first round. All the other candidates were focused on defeating him in runoff, and his ouster changes the situation.
Romania’s political crisis has drawn international attention from US President Donald Trump’s administration. Vice President JD Vance questioned the credibility of Romania’s elections at the Munich Security Conference in February.
Romania, which is a member of NATO and the European Union, has a 600-kilometer border with Ukraine.
