A recent poll by Atlas Intel shows Georgescu with 47%, four points ahead of Lasconi (43%). Georgescu’s dramatic changes shocked Romania’s Western allies. Analysts have warned that Russian bots may have amplified his campaign on social media through highly targeted and effective influence operations.
Blinken spoke about election surveillance at the Malta summit, delivering the West’s clearest statement yet that Putin’s regime is responsible. “Romanian authorities are uncovering a large and well-funded Russian effort to influence the recent presidential election,” he said.
For many in a country that has spent decades in Moscow’s repressive orbit, the threat of Russian interference remains alarming.
“We are in serious danger of becoming like Belarus, where Russia will completely rule our country,” software engineer Andrei Buterres, 29, said as he watched the rally in Bucharest. He added that those supporting Georgescu were “deceived by the social media campaign” he promoted with the help of outsiders.
But millions of voters, including those who live in other countries and vote from afar, supported outsiders. His candidacy divided friends and placed families on opposing sides. “It’s really shocking,” Buterres said. “What we experienced were ice cold showers.”
Ioana Marussi, 29, also a software engineer, said Georgescu “speaks to people who are dissatisfied with the political situation”, a large potential audience in Romania. His answer, she said, is to return the country to the days before World War II when it was a closed, far-right society.
Georgescu criticized continued support for Ukraine and expressed skepticism about NATO’s operations on Romanian soil. He has pledged to dismantle Romania’s political party system, which has led some to say he wants to establish a dictatorship.
His campaign has revived memories of Romania’s bloody past under communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and the violent 1989 revolution that overthrew him. “I was 18 at the time and I could hear people shooting,” said Poderescu, quoted earlier. “I have the same fear today. “We can’t go back to that time.”
