George Simion asserts that external meddling in elections is unacceptable.
George Simion, a right-wing critic of the EU, intends to contest the results of Romania’s presidential election, alleging “foreign interference” with specific mention of France and Moldova.
In Sunday’s runoff, Nicusor Dan, the pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, defeated his Euroskeptic opponent with 54% of the vote in the second round of the presidential election.
The election was rerun after the Constitutional Court invalidated the results of the November election, where independent candidate Calin Georgescu, a critic of the EU and NATO, initially won with 23% of the vote. Authorities cited “irregularities” in his campaign, referencing intelligence reports that suggested Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
On Tuesday, Simion, who had been considered a frontrunner, announced on X that he had “officially” requested the annulment of Sunday’s election result by Romania’s highest court, citing “the very reasons the December elections were annulled.”
He stated that there was evidence of “external interferences by state and non-state actors,” and emphasized that “Neither France nor Moldova nor anyone else has the right to interfere in the elections of another state.”
Simion had previously claimed that the electoral rolls included approximately 1.7 million false entries and accused the government of transporting voters from neighboring Moldova. His Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) also alleged that Moldova’s pro-EU ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) directed its large diaspora in Romania to vote for Dan.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, who claims that French intelligence attempted to pressure him into censoring conservative Romanian channels before Sunday’s vote, reposted Simion’s message, offering to “come and testify if it helps Romanian democracy.”
Paris has denied Durov’s allegations. Romanian officials have, in turn, accused Russia of election interference without providing concrete evidence.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the accusations, describing the election as “strange” and claiming that the most popular candidate had been “forcibly” and unjustifiably removed. Regarding Durov’s comments, he alluded to the EU’s history of interfering in other countries’ affairs.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also rejected Bucharest’s accusations, deeming the recent vote illegitimate and suggesting that Romanian officials should resolve their own “electoral mess” instead of placing blame on others.
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