Romania: Far-right candidate wins rescheduled presidential elections amid concerns of Russian interference

Introduction

On 04 May 2025, Romania held its first round of the rescheduled presidential elections after the Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of the November 2024 presidential election due to evidence of a Russian interference campaign. The November elections saw far-right, pro-Russia candidate Călin Georgescu winning the election, but reports of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period raised concerns about election integrity, prompting the court’s ruling. George Simion of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party won the first round of the presidential election re-run after securing 41% of the vote in the May elections.

Russian interference claims and possible links to Georgescu?

Romania's National Cyber Security Directorate reported that pro-Russian hacker group “NoName057” conducted distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against several websites on 04 May 2025, including the official websites of the Romanian government, Constitutional Court, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Senate, as well as the campaign websites of presidential candidates Crin Antonescu, Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, John Ion Banu-Muscel, and Silviu Predoiu. NoName057 claimed responsibility for the attacks on their Telegram channel, stating that "Simion, who positions himself as an ally of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, is considered the favourite" and that the group is "not standing aside".

After the November elections, declassified Romanian intelligence documents revealed that Georgescu heavily benefitted from a TikTok campaign that was similar to influence operations run by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Moldova. The declassified Romanian documents allege that paid influencers, along with members of extremist, right-wing groups and people with ties to organised crime, promoted Georgescu’s candidacy online. Although the documents don’t directly state that Russia tried to sway the election, they strongly suggest it. Some 25,000 accounts were part of a network on TikTok directly associated with Georgescu’s campaign and became very active in those two weeks, the document says. The Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) also said it identified more than 85,000 cyberattacks that sought to exploit vulnerabilities in Romania’s election IT system, aiming to obtain access to data, change content and crash the network. The attacks continued for several days, including election day and the day after.

In March 2025, authorities also announced that six people had been detained on charges of trying to overthrow the state with Russia’s help. The SRI said that the group was formed to allegedly undermine the “sovereignty and independence” of the Romanian state by “politically undermining the country’s defence capacity”.

Leading up to the elections, Georgescu was polling in single digits but surprisingly won the first round with 23% of the popular vote. He campaigned against sending aid to Ukraine, lauded Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, as “a man who loves his country”, and praised Romania’s 1930s fascist leaders. In response to Georgescu’s ban from contesting in the election rerun, President Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that blocking Georgescu was “a violation of all democratic norms in the centre of Europe” and that elections held without him would be illegitimate.

Re-run election outcomes

George Simion won the first round of the presidential election re-run after securing 41% of the vote. Nicusor Dan came in second place at around 21%, while veteran liberal Crin Antonescu came in third with 20.1%. Simion's support was especially strong in the Romanian diaspora. He secured more than 70% of the votes in the diaspora, including Italy, Spain and Germany. Within Romania, Simion secured victory in 36 out of the 47 electoral districts.

It is believed that many of the voters who backed Georgescu in the annulled election are thought to have switched their allegiance to Simion. Simion has previously suggested that he would consider appointing Georgescu as prime minister should he win and should Georgescu want the position, claiming that Georgescu "is wanted by Romanians" and that Romanians "voted for" Georgescu.

Following the declaration of the results, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned, and the Social Democrat Party (PSD) is to leave the government. On 06 May 2025, Cătălin Predoiu, the justice minister and a member of the centre-right National Liberal Party, was named caretaker Prime Minister by interim president Ilie Bolojan until a new cabinet could be formed. Both Simion and Dan will advance to the runoff of the presidential election rerun, scheduled for 18 May 2025.

Way Ahead

Simion is expected to win the runoff, which will take place in two weeks. A win for Simion is likely to see a shift in Romania’s foreign policies, isolating Romania from the European Union (EU). Simion opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is often critical of the EU leadership. This aligns with the Kremlin’s objectives and demands that Western states halt sending military aid to Ukraine. He also called for the controversial restoration of a “Greater Romania” to its 1940 borders, which include territories now in Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. Both Moldova and Ukraine have banned him from entering their countries. His stances could further jeopardise unity within the EU, which could affect the bloc's ability to respond to Russian aggression.