The Geopolitical Stakes of the 2024 Romanian Presidential Elections

Calin Georgescu

The unexpected results of the first round of the Romanian presidential elections have greatly alarmed Washington, Brussels and Bucharest woke elites, who demanded and obtained the cancellation of the election process just before the second round on December 6.

After the first round of voting, held on November 24th, the voters’ rejection of all the mainstream candidates prompted a series of judicial and media attacks on that round’s winner. Thus, independent nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu stands accused, no more and no less, of subverting the elections with Russian backing.

He is also falsely accused of wanting to end Romania’s NATO membership and promoting a RO-exit.

In fact, the chances of Romania losing membership in the two organizations are nil. Romania has been a member of NATO for two decades and a member of the EU for 17 years.

From a geopolitical point of view, Georgescu’s potential victory would have aligned Romania to the other members of the Danubian democracies, like Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary or Slovakia. Like these countries’ leaders, Georgescu comes across as an Eurosceptic and someone who opposes involvement in the war in Ukraine.

A champion of the war in Ukraine

His opponent in the second round, Elena Lasconi, a former journalist and president of the USR party, advocates an unconditional Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia. She positioned herself as the only one who can keep Romania on the EU / NATO orbit. She was strongly supported by Soros-backed NGO’s, together with the neoconservatives within the US State Department and the EU leadership in Brussels.

Paradoxically, Lasconi's victory would have removed Romania from the Euro-Atlantic geopolitical space - of which all the Danubian democracies are a part - and would have aligned it with ex-Soviet states like Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, which are neither in the EU nor in NATO. Ukraine is at war with Russia. Georgia and Moldova are experiencing serious political turmoil, both being led by women presidents backed by the EU and Soros foundations. Unsurprisingly, they have publicly and emphatically endorsed Lasconi’s presidential bid.

The Georgian Scenario

Afraid of losing to Georgescu, Romanian government officials have made the incredible decision to cancel the presidential election after round 2 voting had already begun abroad in New Zealand, Australia and the EU - via a last-minute ruling of the Constitutional Court. Such a decision is unprecedented within the EU. But in Georgia…the current president has just used a similar tactic, by refusing to recognise her country’s parliamentary election results.

Romanian President Iohannis’ announcement that he will remain in the job for possibly another few months after his mandate expires (December 21) places Romania again in the same league with Georgia, where President Salomé Zourabichvili has refused to stand down at the end of her term ... Well done, Ursula !