The court previously scrapped a vote following similar claims of interference after an anti-establishment candidate’s first-round victory last year.
The Constitutional Court of Romania has dismissed a challenge to the presidential election by candidate George Simion, deeming his claims of foreign interference as “unfounded.” This decision comes after the same court previously annulled the first round of a different election due to “irregularities” and intelligence reports of foreign meddling.
Simion, a conservative EU critic, narrowly lost the recent run-off election to pro-Brussels Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. Following the defeat, Simion alleged “external interferences by state and non-state actors,” but his petition was unanimously rejected by the court on Tuesday.
The court stated that the ruling is final and a full explanation will be provided later. Simion, who has accused several nations, including France, of interference, responded by calling the court’s decision a “continuation of a coup d’état” and vowed to continue his political fight.
Last year, Calin Georgescu, an independent right-wing presidential candidate, unexpectedly took the lead in an election that the government later attributed to foreign voter manipulation. Investigative journalists suggested that the campaign that led to the annulment may have been orchestrated by a Romanian political party to divide the conservative vote. Georgescu was subsequently disqualified from the re-run.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov recently claimed that the head of France’s foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE, requested that he suppress conservative voices on the platform during Romania’s election period. The agency has publicly denied these allegations. Durov then accused French authorities of deflecting criticism by linking him to unrelated criminal investigations involving users of his platform.
After Simion’s challenge, Durov offered to testify before Romanian authorities regarding his interactions with French officials, stating he would do so “if it helps Romanian democracy.”
Prior to the run-off vote, Romania’s Foreign Ministry accused Russia of attempting to influence the election’s outcome. Moscow dismissed these allegations as a “mess” and questioned whether the process should even be considered a legitimate vote.
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