Pro-Russian candidate to challenge bar on Romanian presidential run

Romania’s far-right presidential contender Calin Georgescu plans to challenge a decision to bar him from taking part in May’s rerun presidential election.

The pro-Russian politician said on social media on Monday that he would make an appeal to Romania’s Constitutional Court to lift the ban, which was placed on him the previous day. He made the announcement after violent clashes broke between his supporters and police in Bucharest overnight.

“We go together all the way for the same values: peace, democracy, freedom”, Georgescu said in a video posted on Facebook.

The appeal, and the unrest in the capital, follow an announcement on Sunday by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) that it had rejected the NATO critic’s candidacy for the election on May 4.

Shortly after the BEC’s announcement, Georgescu supporters gathered in front of the electoral commission’s headquarters.

Faced by a significant police presence, the protest turned violent, as participants broke through security barricades. A broadcast van belonging to a television station regarded as supporting Georgescu’s rivals was overturned, and fires were lit.

Police responded with tear gas as rioters threw cobblestones and fireworks.

Some posts on social media claimed that Romania was descending into turmoil, suggesting that events could spark a revolution or cause the closure of borders.

In the United States, CBS News described the country as tipping into “chaos”.

However, the violence and numbers at the protests were limited.

‘ European dictatorship ‘

The controversy surrounding the Moscow-friendly Georgescu has placed Romania in the midst of the rift between Europe and the administration of US President Donald Trump over military spending and the nature of democracy.

Georgescu secured poll position in the first round of the election in November, but the vote was later annulled owing to evidence of suspected Russian interference.

US Vice President JD Vance has claimed that the move illustrated Romania does not share US values. The EU has praised the independence of the country’s courts.

Georgescu, who is currently under criminal investigation on numerous counts, including for communicating false information about campaign financing, has claimed that the ruling shows that Europe is turning into a “dictatorship”, and warned that “if democracy falls in Romania, the entire democratic world will fall”.