Romania Shows How to Un-Steal An Election
Update #17 | Romanian court annuls election result, court cites Russian interference, annuls election result
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Update #17
International context is important
Yesterday marks one month since the media called the 2024 U.S. presidential election for Donald Trump. Despite the well-documented vulnerability of our elections and voting infrastructure, both the news and our political leadership have determinedly portrayed these elections as “free and fair.” There’s been little public discussion about the many signals we may not be able to trust this election’s results.
While we focus on domestic concerns, it's important to view the 2024 election through the lens of ongoing global interference efforts. Election interference is not isolated to one country or event; it's part of a broader pattern of hybrid warfare tactics that have become increasingly sophisticated and widespread. Recognizing how foreign powers, especially Russia, exploit democratic vulnerabilities can help us assess the risks facing elections worldwide, including our own here in the U.S.
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Donald Trump didn’t just steal the election, he stole America’s future. And it will stay that way unless we do something about it.
Over the past month, I wrote about Russia’s playbook for meddling in foreign elections and detailed the tactics it employs to influence outcomes in its favor. The most prominent example may now be the recent Romanian presidential election, which adds yet another example to the growing list of electoral disruptions attributed to Moscow.
Romania Leads the Free World
Romania may not be the first country that comes to mind when you think of a beacon of democracy. With its history marked by decades of Communist rule and a transition to democratic rule only in the late 20th century, it’s a nation still navigating the complexities of political reform.
Yet, despite these challenges, Romania—a European Union and NATO member country—has made significant strides in establishing democratic institutions and aligning itself with Western values. Its position in Eastern Europe, however, makes it a target for foreign influence, as recent election interference has shown.
The 2024 Romanian presidential election
Romania’s incumbent center-right President Klaus Iohannis is concluding his second five-year term after a decade in office. Over a dozen candidates have campaigned for the position, which will not only shape domestic policy but could potentially alter Bucharest’s strong support for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.
Romania, which shares a 400-mile border with Ukraine, plays a crucial strategic role for Western allies. It is home to a key military installation undergoing significant expansion to become the largest NATO airbase in Europe. Southern Romania hosts a U.S. Aegis Ashore missile defense system in Deveselu. It’s a training hub for Ukrainian F-16 pilots. The nation even serves as a critical transit hub for millions of tons of Ukrainian grain.
These geopolitical considerations make Romania a juicy target for Russia. Meanwhile, voters are primarily concerned about the economy and corruption. Romania currently faces some of the highest budget deficits and inflation rates in the EU, while government spending remains high, largely due to an oversized state apparatus.
The first round of voting was scheduled for November 24, with the top two contenders set to compete in a later runoff if no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote.
Suspicious results from first voting round
As the votes were tallied, it quickly became clear that Romania’s presidential race took an unexpected turn. A shock first-round result had propelled Călin Georgescu, a virtually unknown, Moscow-friendly ultranationalist candidate, into first place.
Georgescu, with 22.9% of the vote, would face against center-right reformist Elena Lasconi, who earned 19.17%, in the runoff. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, leader of the pro-EU Social Democrats and widely believed to be the frontrunner, finished third with 19.15%.
It would be the first election in three decades without a Social Democrat candidate to make it to the runoff stage.
Who the heck is Călin Georgescu?
Georgescu is a 62-year-old soil expert and self-styled sustainable development consultant.
Rather than belonging to a traditional political party, Georgescu ran as an independent and connects with millions of followers through TikTok. Much of his rhetoric would seem familiar to most Americans—he’s an extreme right-wing, pro-Russia populist nationalist who promises a “Romania First” agenda. His platform, “Food, Water, Energy,” champions anti-globalization, anti-NATO, and Eurosceptic ideals, focusing on self-sufficiency and a return to Romania’s rural roots.
Georgescu openly lauds Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as “a true leader” and “a man who loves his country.” He says “Russian wisdom” should shape Romania’s foreign policy. He doesn’t believe in COVID-19 or man-made climate change, is largely skeptical of science, and frequently evokes God.
It may not be surprising, then, that he’s a big fan of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. He says Trump “knows what he wants, he loves his people, he put America first, just like I put Romania first … we have the same ideology.” Georgescu also wrote the preface to the Romanian translation of the most recent book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for health secretary.
He’s also praised Corneliu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu, two controversial historical figures known for their far-right, nationalist ideologies and their roles in aligning the Romania with Nazi Germany during World War II.
If elected, Georgescu has pledged to end Romania’s military support for Ukraine, which he calls “an invented state.” He would limit NATO, saying it threatens to embroil Romania in war. He claims Romania’s hosting of a NATO ballistic defense shield is a national “shame.” He would even ban Ukrainian grain exports via Romania’s Black Sea port.
It would be an understatement to suggest that Georgescu being elected to lead Romania would threaten NATO’s interests in the region.
Russian election interference
Immediately as the vote was counted and Georgescu’s surprise win catapulted him from obscurity to victory, Romanians began crying foul and blaming the results on a covert TikTok campaign and Russian meddling. The EU had in fact received intel about possible Russian interference through the social media giant ahead of the election, which spurned them to set up monitoring of TikTok.
Romania quietly launched an investigation. Analysts believed that Georgescu benefited from “preferential treatment” by TikTok’s algorithms, while Moscow coordinated influencers to support the ultranationalist candidate.
Of course Chinese-owned TikTok and the Kremlin deny these accusations, just as Georgescu denies being pro-Russia.
Defending democracy
Romania and the European Union have taken the drastic steps necessary to safeguard the integrity of the country’s elections.
Outgoing Romanian President Klaus Iohannis took the unprecedented step of declassifying and releasing five reports from his nation’s intelligence agencies. These reports revealed the election result was "not a natural outcome." Georgescu’s rise was boosted by a “state actor,” which used messaging app Telegram to recruit thousands of TikTok users to promote the candidate. Some of these thousands of TikTok accounts were created year prior, but remained dormant until the last weeks before the election. Romanian intelligence alleges one social media user spent $381,000 to hire influencers to promote pro-Georgescu content, while Georgescu himself reported zero campaign spending.
Romania's top security council concluded the country was a target of "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks." The Romanian intelligence service said that login data for official Romanian election websites was found in the hands of Russian cyber criminals, and it had detected over 85,000 cyber attacks aiming to exploit existing security vulnerabilities.
The EU’s executive branch ordered TikTok to "freeze and preserve data" related to “electoral processes and civic discourse,” not just in Romania but for all EU national elections before April 2025.
“We are concerned about mounting indications of coordinated foreign online influence operation targeting ongoing Romanian elections, especially on TikTok,” said Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s commissioner responsible for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, in a post on X.
TikTok executive Brie Pegum was summoned before the European Parliament on December 3 to answer questions about the influence campaign. Pregum admitted that the social media platform had taken down a “cluster” of accounts backing Georgescu, which were in violation of TikTok’s rules barring unmarked political ads. An incredible 66,000 fake accounts and 10 million fake followers were removed ahead of the election.
"Honestly speaking, we are getting fed up by the documents and the empty promises," said Swedish center-right European lawmaker Arba Kokalari at the hearing.
Bucharest requested for the EU to launch a more intensive probe of TikTok. According to EU’s regulations, large social media platforms like TikTok have “an obligation to assess and mitigate systemic risks related to electoral processes.”
The Romanian government issued orders for a full ballot recount in its election, fearing that voting had been affected by a cyberattack or other methods of interference. Meanwhile, thousands of Romanians took to the streets to demonstrate in support for European values.
When complete, the recount confirmed the vote count itself was valid. Despite this, Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled that the first round of the election was so compromised, the results must be annulled and the election must be rerun from scratch.
Ciolacu expressed his support for the decision, calling it "the only correct solution after the declassification of the documents... which show that the result of the Romanians' vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia's intervention."
Romanian law mandates that if an election is canceled, it should be rescheduled for the second Sunday following the annulment, which would have been December 22. However, the court has ruled that the government should rerun the entire electoral process, including the campaigns.
President Klaus Iohannis has agreed to extend his term and political candidates are preparing to restart their expensive campaigns. Although a new election date has not yet been set, it will need to be decided soon.
Georgescu says the decision to overturn the election is “basically a formalized coup d'état” and calls the court “corrupt” and “illegal.” He vows to run for president again in the new election, but it’s unclear if he will be allowed to participate.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Diana Sosoaca and Victor Ponta, two of the main pro-Russian politicians that backed Georgescu, may have fled the country.
Reactions from NATO and the West
Overall, the West has recently taken a stiffer stance toward Russia’s “hybrid war” assault on European nations. Some say the aggressive attacks, or even election interference, could trigger an NATOs “Article 5” mutual defense response.
The U.S. State Department relayed its concerns over reports of Russian involvement in harmful cyber activities aimed at undermining the integrity of Romania's electoral process.
"Romania’s hard-earned progress anchoring itself in the transatlantic community cannot be turned back by foreign actors seeking to shift Romania’s foreign policy away from its Western alliances," the U.S. said in a statement.
Neighboring county Moldova held a recent presidential election amidst allegations of Russian interference and voter fraud, while in nearby Georgia, the pro-Western opposition argues that the contested elections there were also impacted by Kremlin influence. It remains seen if leaders of these nearby nations will take more concrete actions against Russia’s election meddling, bolstered by Romania’s show of strength.
Conclusions
By prioritizing the integrity of its electoral system, Romania not only defends its democratic values but also sets a powerful example for other Western democracies facing similar threats. With the U.S. poised to confirm a pro-Putin, populist government, it has much to learn from Romania’s swift, decisive action to protect the will of its people. Defending democracy isn’t just about holding elections—it’s about ensuring the process is fair, transparent, and free from outside interference. In this regard, Romania leads the way.
That indeed may be the plan. I find it unlikely that NATO will allow the U.S., its strongest benefactor, to be captured by a pro-Russian strongman. It would throw the entire western order into chaos. Romania’s actions may be designed to establish a precedent for the Biden Administration to take similarly decisive steps to cite Russian interference and throw out Trump’s illegal win.
More soon.
If we don’t take action to defend democracy, we don’t deserve to keep it.
If you have relevant information to contribute, please email: tinfoilmatt@proton.me
