Following the election, the Romanian security services alleged that Georgescu's campaign had utilized over €1 million in undeclared funds and that the election infrastructure had been subjected to cyber-attacks believed to originate from "a state actor". Based on these allegations, theConstitutional Court of Romania annulled the results of the first round on 6 December.[17][18][19][20]
On 26 February 2025, Georgescu was detained by police and charged with several offenses, including "incitement to actions against the constitutional order." Authorities also imposed a 60-day ban on his media appearances.[21] Georgescu subsequently filed his candidacy for the2025 Romanian presidential election, but was barred from running by theCentral Electoral Bureau on 9 March.[22] At the time of his exclusion, Georgescu was leading in publicopinion polls.[23]Nicușor Dan was ultimately elected president.
In 1991, Georgescu became head of the Office for the Environment of the Romanian Parliament. In 1992, he became an adviser to the then Minister of EnvironmentMarcian Bleahu. He was Secretary General in the Ministry of Environment from 1997 to 1998.[25]
Georgescu acted as the executive director of the National Centre forSustainable Development in Bucharest from 2000 to 2013, during which time he coordinated the development of two versions of the National Sustainable Development Strategy, in line with the guidelines of the European Strategy for Sustainable Development. He was President of the European Research Centre for theClub of Rome from 2013 to 2015 and the Executive Director of the UN Global Sustainable Index Institute Foundation in Geneva and Vaduz from 2015 to 2016.[2]
Georgescu was proposed asprime minister by theAlliance for the Union of Romanians in 2020 and 2021.[27][28][29] Georgescu ran forpresident in the2024 Romanian presidential election. Among his campaign stances were strengthening Romania's defence capabilities, diversifying Romania's diplomatic relations, increasing support for farmers, promoting energy and food production, and reducing dependency on imports.[30] He obtained the most votes at 22.95% in the first round of voting on 24 November,[31] and advanced to a runoff scheduled on 8 December along withElena Lasconi.[32]
On 6 December 2024, theConstitutional Court of Romania cancelled the presidential elections, which will have to be rescheduled for a later date. The court did not provide a reason for the cancellation.[33][18] Russia's meddling with the Romanian elections has been mentioned as the foremost reason.[33][18] Georgescu filed an appeal in theEuropean Court of Human Rights against the cancellation, which the ECHR rejected on 21 January 2025, saying that it did not have jurisdiction over the elections.[a][35]
On 6 March 2025, Georgescu definitively lost the trial at ECHR.[36][37] ECHR has motivated that only elections for legislative bodies are covered by human rights stipulations, elections for the president are not.[38] Also, there was no evidence of having had an unfair trial.[38] ECHR mentioned that ECHR is not subservient to the European Union.[38]
In November 2020, Georgescu stated that dictatorIon Antonescu andIron Guard founderCorneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom "the national history lived, through them speaks and spoke the national history and not through the lackeys of the globalist powers that lead Romania today temporarily".[39] He has also said that theRomanian revolution was used by the West to steal Romanian resources, and has multiple times promotedCOVID-19 misinformation.[14]
In November 2024, he spoke withIsraeli Diaspora Affairs MinisterAmichai Chikli. Georgescu said that if elected, he would fightantisemitism, move the Romanian embassy in Israel toJerusalem, invite Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu to Bucharest, and ignore theInternational Criminal Court'sarrest warrant for Netanyahu, despite Romania being astate party to the Rome Statute.[40] Romania accused Israel of interfering in the 2024 Romanian presidential election in favor of Georgescu.[41] On 2 December 2024, theJewish News Syndicate characterized Georgescu as "—a little-known antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, pro-Russia candidate—projected to win a runoff election for prime minister amid allegations of Russian meddling".[4]Haaretz does not see Georgescu as a friend of the Jews.[42]
On 6 December, the Romanian Constitutional Court unanimously annulled the presidential election process due to additional "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks" favoring Georgescu.[43]
Georgescu has stated that he favors Romania's geopoliticalnon-alignment between thetwo power blocs. He denied being an extremist or a fascist, saying, "We remain directly linked toEuropean values, but we must find our (own) values."[44] He spoke about supportingRomanian farmers, traditional values, theRomanian Orthodox Church, and Romania's energy and agricultural self-sufficiency. He said that Romania would respect its commitments to the EU and NATO, but only "to the extent that they will respect theirs" toward Romania.[30][45] He criticised Romania's dependence on international companies in sectors such as food,water, and energy. Georgescu accused thearms industry in the United States of fueling theRusso-Ukrainian War, but claimed that, "For me and my people, the most important is the partnership with America." He supportedDonald Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine throughnegotiations.[46]
Several media articles criticized Georgescu for hispro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms tospread information sourced to Russian state media.[5][47][6] This also resulted in him leaving the AUR in 2022.[30] Georgescu alsocriticised the European Union andNATO, and in a 2021 interview, he described the latter's ballistic missile defense shield inDeveselu as a "shame of diplomacy",[48] and called it a "disgrace".[9] He has also praised Russian presidentVladimir Putin as "a man who loves his country." Moreover, he stated that he wanted to engage with, rather than challenge, Russia, because "Security comes from dialogue, not confrontation."[49][30][50] Speaking of thewar in Donbas that began in 2014, Georgescu said in 2021: "The situation in Ukraine is clearly manipulated, with the goal of provoking a conflict destined to financially help themilitary–industrial complex of the USA."[6][51] Georgescu has also pledged to end military aid to Ukraine if he is elected president.[52] Additionally, he described Ukraine as a fictional state, while suggesting that Romania could annex Ukrainian territories, precisely NorthernBukovina,Budjak, andNorthern Maramureș.[53] Georgescu also describes himself as "ultra pro" US PresidentDonald Trump.[35]
In his 14 February 2025Munich Security Conference Address, US Vice PresidentJD Vance singled out Romania's Constitutional Court's annulment decision on their most recent presidential election as one of several examples of Europe's refusal to adhere to America's most current democratic principles.[60][61][62]
Elena Trifan speaks of Georgescu's fascist rhetoric.[63]
Stefan Baghiu says Georgescu promoted "a neo-legionary blend of Christian mysticism and New Age philosophy."[64] Many other media outlets agree that he promoted theNew Age.[65]
Georgescu's campaign utilized social media, particularlyTikTok, where his videos had more than 52 million views in a four-day period and attracted the attention of younger voters. The Romanian Supreme Council of National Defence stated that TikTok had given Georgescu "preferential treatment," leading to his "massive exposure". TikTok said Georgescu was treated the same as other candidates and "was subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions."[66]
On 4 December 2024, Romanian presidentKlaus Iohannis declassified and published Romanian intelligence agency documents, which stated that Georgescu's growth was "not organic" and was funded and coordinated by a "state actor". Iohannis declassified the documents at the request of the intelligence agencies. The documents said that Georgescu's advertising campaign slogan "Balance and uprightness"[b] was in its methodology identical to an earlier TikTok campaign slogan "Brother near brother" purchased by Russian actors and targeting Ukraine. Romanian media said that the person who funded the Georgescu campaign was a right-wing supporter named Eugen Sechila. The documents said that the campaign was coordinated throughTelegram andDiscord channels, where advice was given to participants on how to bypass TikTok security mechanisms, avoid geoblocking, and bans for comment spam. One involved account, "bogpr," identified as registered for a Romanian citizen, Bogdan Peșchir, made donations to other TikTok accounts of over €1 million, including €381,000 to accounts directly involved in promoting Georgescu's campaign. The South African advertising company FA Agency contacted numerous TikTok influencers and offered €1,000 for promoting Georgescu's videos. In total, over 25,000 accounts were involved in promoting these videos.[67][68] TheConstitutional Court of Romania annulled the results of the election on 6 December. It did not provide a reason for the cancellation. Georgescu's opponent, Elena Lasconi, said, "The constitutional court's decision is illegal, amoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting."[17]
The Romanian investigative outletSnoop wrote that the "Balance and uprightness" campaign on TikTok was funded by theNational Liberal Party, which hired the Romanian firm Kensington Communication to run the campaign. Kensington Communications sent a script to 130 influencers for use through a newly established platform called FameUp.[69] Although the hashtag was changed from "Balance and seriousness" to "Balance and uprightness" (the firm Kensington Communication claims it was done without consulting them), the influencers still followed the script given to them. Then, at least some of these influencers added "Călin Georgescu" in the comments – in effect, lending their support to Georgescu.[69]
Georgescu reported his own income during the electoral campaign as 0 euros, and his campaign spending as 0 euros (all candidates have to fill mandatory reports of their income and campaign spending).[70] Romanian businessmanDan Șucu estimated the cost of Georgescu's electoral campaign at €50 million.[71]
He received the nickname "TikTok Messiah" or "Ultranationalist Messiah".[72][73][74]
On 26 February 2025, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Georgescu for various alleged offenses, including campaign funding abuses, support of fascist groups, and "incitement to actions against the constitutional order".[7] The same day, Georgescu was detained by police as he was on his way to register his candidacy for the2025 presidential election.[75] His questioning coincided with police searches at 47 home addresses, according to the General Prosecutor's Office.[76][77] Georgescu denied all wrongdoing and stated authorities were "looking to invent evidence to justify stealing the election and to do anything in their efforts to block a new candidacy from me."[76] Romanian Prime MinisterMarcel Ciolacu of theSocial Democratic Party stated on social media that "the judiciary is independent and the law must be applied regardless of persons."[78]
Prosecutors ordered Georgescu not to appear in the media or create any newsocial media accounts for the next 60 days.[21] These bans were set to expire one week before the 4 May 2025 presidential election.[79]
The investigation established that Georgescu's security team was primarily composed of mercenaries who fought alongside theWagner Group, most notablyHorațiu Potra, Marin Burcea, Eugen Sechila, and Dorina Mihai. All had links to Wagner and theAkhmat Kadyrov Regiment.[80]
Georgescu and his wife are a low-income family (400 Euro/month), inhabit an expensive villa, and he used to have a driver and bodyguards.[81] His villa costs half million Euros.[82] Payment for each bodyguard is at least 500 Euros/day.[82]
On 7 March 2025, Georgescu filed his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.[83] On 9 March, Romania'sCentral Electoral Bureau (BEC) rejected Georgescu's candidacy.[22][why?] At the time of his disqualification, Georgescu was leadingopinion polls with about 40% of the first round vote.[23] The BEC referenced the Constitutional Court's annulling of the 2024 election in its decision.[84] Georgescu appealed the decision; however, on 11 March 2025, the Constitutional Court upheld the Central Electoral Bureau's decision.[85] On 26 May, Georgescu announced his retirement from politics.[86]
"Trezirea la realitate" [A Wake-up Call], inRomânia post-criză. Reprofesionalizarea României III [Romania after the Crisis], 3rd IPID Report, Bucharest, 2010, pp. 5–15.
"Reclădirea capitalului uman" [Rebuilding Human Capital], inȘansa României: oamenii. Reprofesionalizarea României II [A Chance for Romania: Betting on People], 2nd IPID Report, București, 2009, pp. 7–18.
"Romania at the Eve of the Third Millennium", in Millennium III, special issue on "Which Forces are Driving Europe?, European Conference of the National Associations of the Club of Rome", Bucharest, 23–24 May 2008, pp. 95–103.
"Reprofesionalizarea României" [Reshaping Professional Worth in Romania], 1st IPID Report, Bucharest, 2008; author and editor.
^ECHR enforces "personal human rights".[34] Since there was no imminent and irreparable danger to Mr. Georgescu's human rights, ECHR does not prioritize his case.[35] ECHR cannot rule over the results of Romanian elections.[35]
^Also translated as "Balance and integrity" or "Stability and integrity".
^abKirby, Paul; Barbu, Mircea (26 February 2025)."Romanian far-right presidential hopeful Georgescu detained and indicted".BBC Home. Retrieved27 February 2025.Georgescu was stopped in traffic in the capital, Bucharest, on his way to register as a candidate for new elections in May, after last December's second-round run-off was annulled by the constitutional court.
^Baghiu, Stefan (2 January 2025)."Loony platform politics: the Romanian far-right performance and the digital dystopia of 2024".Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.33 (1):235–249.doi:10.1080/25739638.2025.2482400.ISSN2573-9638.For Georgescu, degrowth becomes less about envisioning sustainable futures and more about amplifying grievances with globalization and modernity. The result is a distorted echo of the original movement, stripped of its critical engagement and repurposed as a tool for reactionary politics. By combining these critiques with protochronist and futurologist narratives, he constructs an incoherent, yet systematic opposition to capitalism. This opposition, at the same time, is couched within a neo-legionary blend of Christian mysticism and New Age philosophy, creating a uniquely postmodern ideological mélange.
Applebaum, Anne (7 January 2025)."The New Rasputins – Anne Applebaum".Anne Applebaum – The Atlantic staff writer, Pulitzer-prize winning historian, Senior Fellow at the Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved8 January 2025.
^Higgins, Andrew (27 February 2025)."Romania Opens Criminal Case Against Calin Georgescu".The New York Times. Retrieved9 March 2025.Mr. Georgescu was on his way to register as a candidate for the upcoming redo of the canceled election when police stopped his vehicle in traffic in Bucharest on Wednesday morning and said he needed to report to prosecutors.
United Nations special rapporteurs bear mandates from theUnited Nations Human Rights Council and may hold the titles special rapporteur, independent expert or special representative of the Secretary-General, and are also referred to simply as mandate-holders.
