Romania’s unprecedented political turmoil around the canceled presidential election seems unlikely to subside anytime soon, as authorities continue to uncover further details about the campaign of a little-known independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, and his shocking victory in the first round of the now-annulled race.
As we also reported, the country’s Constitutional Court ordered the entire election to be redone from scratch after declassified intelligence reports claimed a foreign actor (i.e. Russia) interfered in the election campaign by promoting Georgescu on social media with 25,000 fake accounts while real influencers were paid from separate but undisclosed domestic sources to do the same.
Despite these allegations, the Romanian Left and Right seem to be united in their outrage over the last-minute cancellation of the elections. The court’s decision was strongly criticized by politicians and parties across political lines, including by Georgescu’s pro-EU, liberal second-round contender Elena Lasconi, who accused the socialist-aligned judges of “destroying democracy” just to give the ruling socialist party (PSD) another chance at the presidency.The move might also serve as a dangerous precedent for the future of democracy across Europe. You don’t like the outcome? Just blame Russia and annul the vote, easy.
Nonetheless, the police conducted several raids linked to Georgescu over the weekend, no doubt seen by many as the establishment’s newest attempt to discredit him and retroactively justify the election annulment.
One of the raids involved searching the homes of a businessman suspected of having illegally assisted Georgescu’s campaign by financing undisclosed pro-Georgescu content on TikTok with nearly €1 million. In a separate operation, the police detained 20 people reportedly belonging to Georgescu’s private security team on their way to a polling station after finding an “arsenal” of illegal weapons and large sums of money in their cars, including their leader who runs a mercenary group in the Congo.
The financier behind Georgescu’s ‘0 lei’ campaign
The three properties raided in the city of Brașov belong to programmer-turned-business owner Bogdan Peșchir, who allegedly financed Georgescu’s campaign with €1 million, mostly through a South African firm, including at least €360,000 paid directly from his TikTok account “bogpr” to other influencers on the site at a rate of up to €950 per post.
Undisclosed political promotion is not only against TikTok’s terms of service but is also against the law, especially given that Georgescu’s officially declared campaign budget was €0 and he proudly flaunted his ‘grassroots’ support in every interview leading up to the election.
“The searches concern the possible involvement of a natural person in the illegal financing of the electoral campaign of a candidate for the presidency of Romania, through the use of sums of money that there are indications that they might be derived from the commission of crimes, being subsequently introduced in a money laundering process,” the authorities said on Saturday.
In a subsequent statement on Sunday, December 8th, the prosecutor’s office said it had seized crypto wallets worth over $7 million from Peșchir’s computers and transferred them to the accounts of the National Agency for the Administration of Unavailable Goods (ANABI) until the investigation determines the money’s origin.
There is a strong suspicion that the businessman came to his fortune illegally, as last week’s unclassified intelligence report mentions that “Bogdan Peșchir displays a standard of living that does not correspond to the activities carried out through the owned company.”
Bodyguard mercenary on a late-night stroll
On Saturday night, Romanian police detained 20 professional mercenaries who reportedly belong to Georgescu’s private security team after finding an “arsenal” of illegal firearms and bladed weapons, as well as large sums of cash in their cars. Their leader, Horațiu Potra—a local councilor in the city of Mediaş who runs a mercenary group in the Congo—was picked up from his luxury car, which also contained weapons and cash, heading the convoy towards the capital.
When asked where Potra and his entourage were headed with pistols and machetes, he said he was on his way to vote at a polling station in Bucharest, despite the elections being canceled and the fact that he lives in a different city.
Authorities suspect he was trying to orchestrate an intimidation campaign or instigate public unrest in and around the capital. Potra may have been heading to the same polling station near the capital where Georgescu organized his protest against the annulment on early Sunday, demanding the right to vote with around a hundred of his supporters.
The mercenary leader was seen being escorted out of the Prahova police station in handcuffs on Sunday night and prosecutors said he was charged with non-compliance with weapons and ammunition regulations as well as public instigation for violence against politicians on social media. His lawyers, however, say the charges are not linked to his connections to Georgescu or the fact that he is reportedly in charge of the independent candidate’s security.
Whatever may be the truth in these allegations, it’s clear that the court’s reckless decision to overturn the democratic will of the people has transformed Romania into a powder keg with no apparent way out of the chaos.