Did Europe block Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu's presidential candidacy?

4 hours ago

Did Europe block Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu's presidential candidacy?

After Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu was disqualified from the country's presidential race, a series of posts sharing disinformation have appeared on social media platforms. Euroverify debunks their claims.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/19/did-europe-block-romanian-ultranationalist-calin-georgescus-presidential-candidacy

Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

Transcript

00:00Has the EU banned Georgescu from standing in Romania's election re-run?

00:10Online users are claiming the European Union has banned Romania's ultranationalist candidate

00:15Calin Georgescu from competing in the country's presidential elections.

00:20In this post on X, one German far-right political activist blamed the ban on EU dictatocracy.

00:26Another user claimed Europe was forbidding candidates from running in elections.

00:30Meanwhile, this account claimed to show Romanians protesting against alleged EU corruption.

00:35But a reverse image search revealed that the images appeared to come from anti-corruption

00:39protests in Serbia, not Romania.

00:42Let's debunk.

00:43Although Georgescu won the first round of Romania's presidential elections in November,

00:48the results were annulled by the country's constitutional court.

00:52Declassified intelligence reports revealed a Russian-backed campaign to influence voters

00:56on social media, with a strong focus on TikTok.

01:00This wave of online disinformation comes as a ruling was issued in March by Romania's

01:04constitutional court and not by the European Union.

01:08Romania's highest court for constitutional matters upheld the decision to reject Georgescu's

01:13candidacy in the election re-run scheduled for May.

01:16Prior to this, Romania's Central Electoral Committee had suspended Georgescu's candidacy

01:21application.

01:22This body has the power to reject candidates who do not meet the required legal conditions

01:27to hold presidential office.

01:29The European Commission has taken measures to tackle foreign interference in the Romanian

01:34elections, but has not banned candidates.

01:37In December, the Commission announced the launch of legal proceedings against TikTok

01:41due to a suspected breach of the Digital Services Act.

01:45The platform is suspected to have failed to mitigate risks which threatened the integrity

01:49of Romania's November elections.

Did Europe block Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu's presidential candidacy?

Category

Transcript

Recommended