Top Romanian Court Upholds Ban On Nationalist Calin Georgescu Running For President

BUCHAREST -- Romania’s Constitutional Court has upheld the decision to bar populist Calin Georgescu from running in the May presidential election.

Georgescu appealed the March 11 decision of the Central Election Board (BEC), which barred him from competing in the presidential election because his candidacy "does not meet the conditions provided by law."

The verdict was unanimous with nine judges out of nine rejecting the appeal. Justice Minister Radu Marinescu said the decision was binding and must be respected. He defended the court's verdict, saying that "extremism is unacceptable in a democratic society."

'Exposed The Demon In All Its Ugliness'

Georgescu, who is critical of NATO and opposes Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, was a surprise winner of the first round of the presidential election in November 2024. However, after the vote, Romanian intelligence said that foreign actors, most likely Russia, had manipulated social-media platforms, especially TikTok, to benefit Georgescu.

In a video posted on Facebook after the March 11 verdict , Georgescu said that the court's decision "was not and is not about the man Calin Georgescu. It could have been any other person. The system does not accept anyone outside of it."

New Protests In Bucharest Over Final Court Decision Barring Presidential Candidate

Saying he had "exposed the demon in all its ugliness," he told his supporters to follow their consciences in supporting other candidates.

Supporters of Georgescu are gathering outside Romania's parliament building, where the Constitutional Court is headquartered.

The protesters were chanting slogans such as "Georgescu, President," "Down with dictatorship," and "We dont want to be led by thieves."

SEE ALSO: With Calin Georgescu's Electoral Disqualification, Romania Could Be In For A Rocky Ride

Demonstrations in support of Georgescu on March 9 turned violent, with more than a dozen police officers injured in scuffles with protesters.

'You Will Not Defeat Us!'

Nationalist politicians blasted the court's decision. An ally of Georgescu and the leader of the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, wrote on his Facebook page: "Shame on [the Constitutional Court]! Shame! Shame!"

While Georgescu stood as an independent in last year's presidential election, he has ties to AUR.

"You will not defeat us! The Romanian people have already woken up! And they will be victorious!" he added.

Another nationalist leader, Anamaria Gavrila, the president of the Party of Young People (POT), said "some judges...decided not to let me and others, millions of Romanians, choose who we really want to be the president of the country."

SEE ALSO: Who Is Calin Georgescu, The Far-Right Winner Of Romania's Presidential First Round?

However, many welcomed the court's decision. Elena Lasconi, a liberal politician who would have faced Georgescu in the second round of last year's presidential election before it was annulled, said that "Georgescu is just one facet of a deeply corrupt and rotten system."

"Georgescu must be held criminally accountable for all the atrocities he is accused of in recent months," she said, "and the institutions that have been brought to their knees by the wave of disinformation must be lifted."

Romanian Society Split

Romania's nationalist and far-right forces are scrambling to find a replacement for Georgescu. Far-right parties made significant gains in the December parliamentary elections.

One of the proposed replacements is AUR leader Simion, who ranked fourth in the first round of the voided presidential election, although he has said he is not planning to run.

Romanian society is deeply split over the annulling of the last presidential election and now the decision to bar Georgescu from running.

Many Romanians were up in arms about the verdict, calling the court's judges and politicians supportive of the move traitors and thieves and bemoaning the state of corruption in the country.

Writing on Facebook, Ionela Nicoleta Bradeanu said the court’s decision wasn’t about Georgescu. “It’s about a fundamental right that has been violated,” she said.

Catalin Balan said it was a “mafia-like decision.” “Those of you who are rejoicing this controlled judiciary, comrades, welcome to the dictatorship,” Balan said.

Other Romanians praised the Constitutional Court’s decision. “We cannot have a president supported by Russia,” Dobrin Florin wrote on Facebook.

Ioan Ciprian Ghiran said that Georgescu should go to prison “so characters like him will not emerge anymore.”

The court's decision is also being discussed by legal analysts and constitutional law experts.

Laura Stefan, an expert at the ExpertForum think tank, said that the BEC had enough grounds to annul Georgescu's candidacy.

SEE ALSO: How TikTok Fueled The Rise Of Romania's Far-Right Presidential Candidate Georgescu

"In his particular case, I really think there are these legitimate concerns about both the way he built his campaign and the question marks regarding the funding or involvement of certain groups in his campaign," Stefan said.

Other analysts have disagreed. "Law and legal reasoning are being manipulated based solely on political criteria," said Bogdan Dima, a public law professor at the University of Bucharest.

Russia, which was accused of backing Georgescu in the first round of the vote last year, said that Romania was disregarding democracy.

"They accuse our country of having some kind of involvement with Georgescu, but this is total nonsense. This is an absolutely baseless accusation," said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin.