Eastern European country of Romania is in shock after the first round of its Presidential elections, as an independent, rightwing candidate, a Euroskeptic who has called the United Nations ‘satanic’ came out as the big winner.
Almost as shocking is the fact that the Prime Minister, a leftist-globalist-euro-fanatic candidate, whom all opinion polls called the favorite, came in third and is out of the race.
BBC reported:
“With more than 99% of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu has an unassailable lead of nearly 350,000 votes over center-right candidate Elena Lasconi, with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-election favorite, in third.
The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no party of his own and campaigned largely on the social media platform TikTok, came as the biggest surprise of the election.”
Elena Lasconi is expected to challenge Georgescu in a final run-off on 8 December.
Lasconi is only about a thousand votes ahead of Ciolacu, a result that would put Ciolacu, ‘an establishment figure who would continue Romania’s pro-western path’, out of the race.
“Exit polls released earlier on Sunday suggested that Ciolacu had a commanding lead and projected Lasconi would take second place. Political commentator Radu Magdin said the support for Georgescu was unprecedented, with earlier opinion polls placing him at around 5% of the vote.
‘Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys’, Mr Magdin said.
Georgescu, who belongs to no party, has sworn to end what he calls subservience to the European Union and Nato, especially on support for Ukraine. He has condemned the Nato ballistic missile defense shield in Deveselu, Romania.”
The campaign in Romania focused on the cost of living and put another nationalist, George Simion, in fourth place.
Simion has supported Georgescu for the second round of voting.
Associated Press reported:
“After polls closed, 9.4 million people — about 52.4% of eligible voters — had cast ballots, according to the Central Election Bureau. The second round of the vote will be held Dec. 8.
Thirteen candidates ran for the presidency in the European Union and NATO member countries. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.”
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