Călin Georgescu barely registered in national opinion polls, didn’t take part in big TV debates, and doesn’t even belong to a political party. But he’s leading the race to become Romania’s next president.
His shock rise from obscurity Sunday in the first round of the country’s presidential election propelled the 62-year-old Georgescu, a far-right, NATO-skeptic Russia fan, into a run-off against a more mainstream candidate.
The Dec. 8 deciding round of the election will determine whether Georgescu takes charge of this strategically-placed nation of 19 million people, which borders Ukraine on the eastern edge of the European Union.
At stake is the stewardship of a pivotal member of the Western alliance at a critical time. Ukraine and its allies are holding out against the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin, conscious that Donald Trump will be taking office in the United States in January and has pledged to end the war within a day.
Until now, Romania has played a supportive role in the West’s backing for Ukraine, opening the Port of Constanţa as a vital route to ship Ukrainian grain exports out and send military supplies in. The war has also raised the strategic importance of the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base on the Black Sea, which is on course to become NATO’s largest.
But all that could change if Georgescu takes charge.
Silver-haired, slim and clean-shaven, Georgescu spent much of his career in officialdom, specializing in agricultural affairs. Indeed, food policy has loomed large in his politics, and he has called for the country to be more self-sufficient in both farm and energy output.
In Romania he became active in nationalist politics and was mentioned as a potential prime ministerial candidate for the hard-right AUR party. Like several other leading right-wing radicals in Europe, including France’s Jordan Bardella and Britain’s Nigel Farage, Georgescu has won a mass following on social media, which is where he appears to have mounted his campaign for the presidency this year.
Facebook groups and pages popped up in support of his political activities, alongside Instagram and Twitter accounts.
TikTok star
The judo-loving Georgescu has some 3.8 million likes on TikTok and 298,000 followers, while his videos regularly attract millions of views. During the campaign, accounts with bot-like behavior were highly active in comments on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. Some also attacked his rivals.
On TikTok, clips of Georgescu went viral, often produced with the subversive, populist style of controversial influencer Andrew Tate, accompanied by dramatic music and subtitles. Georgescu was shown barely breaking a sweat on the running track, flipping opponents in judo — à la Putin — and riding a white horse in a traditional Romanian shirt.
In many ways, Georgescu fits the mold of the radical right-wing populist in 2024. He speaks plainly, shuns Western orthodoxy, is loathed by mainstream media, and has sounded more than friendly toward Russia.
Among Europe’s former Communist states, Romania has historically been one of the most skeptical toward Moscow, but Georgescu’s enthusiasm for Putin seems not to have cost him at the polls. Putin shows he loves his country, Georgescu has said, adding that Romania could do with some Russian wisdom.
He has also criticized the EU; claimed that NATO would never intervene to fight for Romania if it were attacked; and called for an end to the war in Ukraine, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is bad for his country. Meanwhile, the U.S. ballistic missile defense system housed at the Deveselu military base in southern Romania is a matter of national “shame,” Georgescu has argued, and promotes conflict.
According to Marius Ghincea, a political scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Georgescu’s meteoric surge was driven by voter disillusionment with Romania’s two largest mainstream parties, which have been in a grand coalition since 2021 and are seen as “incompetent.”
“The crisis provoked by the pandemic, by inflation, by the various crises that Romania has experienced over the past few years … have diminished trust in the establishment,” he said. Georgescu’s relative obscurity may also have helped him, he added.
Fascists and Communists
Who has influenced Georgescu’s political outlook? If his taste in historical role models is anything to go by, the West has reason to worry.
He has described the 1989 revolution that ended decades of Communist rule as a coup d’état used by the West to steal Romania’s resources, and claims the country is now enslaved by the West.
He was investigated by prosecutors for claiming in 2022 that Ion Antonescu, Romania’s World War II prime minister who facilitated the Holocaust, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu — another violent, antisemitic nationalist — were heroes.
Georgescu has also embraced a selection of conspiracy theories and wears his religious beliefs on his sleeve, playing to the country’s Orthodox Christian core electorate.
In 2020 he posted a video of himself bathing in cold water, saying it was the best vaccine against coronavirus. In a 2024 podcast he said Covid doesn’t exist, that no one has ever seen the virus, and that “the only real science is Jesus Christ.”
He has also said he doesn’t have a political campaign but “a calling,” and that his political party is Romania.
Oddly for such a successful politician, Georgescu lacks a campaign headquarters. After his stunning first round victory on Sunday, reporters waited for him in front of his home.
He declared no campaign expenses, saying: “We are in God’s hands.”
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