In December, the first round was invalidated by Romanian justice, after suspicions of Russian interference. The far -right candidate, Calin Georgescu, had come to the lead to everyone’s surprise, after a massive campaign on Tiktok. It has since been excluded from the ballot.
Like an impression of deja vu. Romanian voters are once again called to the polls on Sunday, May 4, for the first round of the presidential election. A first round, however, has already taken place, on November 24, at the end of which the candidate of the far right, Calin Georgescu, came to the lead, to everyone’s surprise. But on December 6, two days before the second round, the Constitutional Court decided to cancel the vote. This fact, extremely rare within the European Union, plunged Romania into a political crisis, against the backdrop of suspicions of Russian interference. Under the threat of dismissal, the outgoing president, the liberal and pro-European Klaus Iohannis, announced his resignation on February 10.
Romanian justice has made this heavy decision due in particular to a “Coordinated guerrillas” on TikTok who served Calin Georgescu, according to Romanian secret service documents declassified by the presidency. Unknown to the general public, the one who presented himself as “An avenger sent by God” led an active campaign in the social network in a few months. To the point of becoming popular enough to harvest 22,94% Voices in the first round and thus qualify comfortably for the second. The ballot will therefore replay and, in the hope of preventing history from repeating itself, the authorities have installed safeguards.
To understand the measures put in place, you have to return to the events of November. While it was only credited with 1% of the voting intentions in the polls carried out four weeks before the ballot, Calin Georgescu came at the top of the first round. For his campaign, the candidate, critic of the European Union as well as NATO and opposed to any military aid to Ukraine, as well as his supporters, have bet on social networks. According to a Viginum report (PDF), The French body to combat foreign digital interference, the authorities have collected data that “reveal an aggressive promotion campaign, in violation of electoral legislation, and an exploitation of algorithms to increase the popularity of Calin Georgescu in an accelerated manner”.
Tiktok is a particularly popular social network in Romania, with nearly 9 million users for a population of 19 million inhabitants. The documents revealed that these maneuvers also aimed at the Meta group platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram. The plan was clear: flooding social networks, paying for micro-influencers to talk about the election by promoting the ideal candidate for Romania: a man presented as honest and honest. Most of the videos have since been deleted by the application.
Under these videos, thousands of accounts posted Comments referring to Calin Georgescu. “Tiktok’s algorithm likes commitment, so that went up the videos”explains to Franceinfo Catherine Durandin, historian specialist in Romania. According to the Viginum report, Tiktok recently said he found more than “27 199 Inauthentic accounts having targeted Romania to promote the Alliance Party for the Romanian unit (AUR) and ‘to a lesser extent’, candidate Calin Georgescu “. These accounts “published comments rather than videos “. Tiktok says it has moderated them between December 2024 and January 2025. Which was not sufficient according to theA European Commission, which announced, on December 17, launching an investigation against the Chinese platform. She criticizes Tiktok for not having spotted the contents deemed more than problematicaticses, in particular in a context of an electoral campaign. Contacted by Franceinfo to make a point on the advances of the investigation, the European Commission did not wish to respond.
-This offensive conducted on Tiktok was coupled with a large number of cyber attacks targeting computer systems linked to the electoral process. The declassified documents of the Romanian presidency claim that certain accounts having participated in this operation “have been previously involved in promoting Prorusses, Anti-NATS and Anti-Ukraine messages”. If the suspicions quickly turned Towards Russia, so far Calin Georgescu and Moscow have both denied having taken part in this online campaign. Today, the ex-far right leader is prosecuted by the courts and cannot present themselves to the presidential election. But despite this non-participation, Romania intends to protect itself from new interference.
On March 17, the president of the acting country, Ilie Bolojan, summoned a meeting with all the representatives of the institutions responsible for organizing the elections. The objective was to assess the state of logistical preparations and to ensure the application of electoral legislation, including online. Since then, the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), Who focused on traditional media, became interested in social networks. Since the official start of the new electoral campaign on March 4 at midnight, the audiovisual gendarme has been sanctioning several videos every day for “dESINFORMATION OF DANGERT NATURE which affects public health, national security or the integrity of democratic processes “details the CNA on its Facebook page.
“The Council multiplies this type of decisions. Before, it was focused only on classic television channels, while the majority of disinformation is happening today”observes Anatola Capelle-Pogacean, historian and political scientist at the Center for International Research in Sciences Po. “Authority has taken the problem in the body”she believes. Between March 1 and April 8, the National Audiovisual Council prohibited 56 content, most of them “Aiming advertisinghealth or disinformation contents “reports the Europa Libera Romania newspaper. The CNA lists the contents of which he asked for deletion, as this eye -catching video: “Calin Georgescu will be president of Romania! Listen carefully until the end “. In a desire for transparency, CNA publishes its decisions on Facebook every day.
In addition to these sanctions, the Romanian authorities focus on the involvement of large platforms to limit the dissemination of such content. Thus, Tiktok and Meta collaborate with the Romanian authorities. “We organized a meeting with the Romanian regulatory authorities and representatives of large platforms in order to envisage several scenarios”relates Madalina Botan, researcher in the Bulgaro-Romanian observatory of the digital media. “We had to reflect on how we had to act in the event of a disinformation campaign for example”she explains. The content of the meeting has not been made public, it prefers to remain discreet on the conclusion of these exchanges.
Even if the platforms have undertaken to control more, zero risk does not exist, warns Catherine Duradin. “No State is safe from an online campaign organized to promote a candidate”she explains. However, even in the event of an attempted interference, according to the researchers contacted by Franceinfo, it is “unthinkable” that the second election be canceled again. “Romanians need a president, there is a crisis of confidence of citizens towards democracyjudge Madalina Botan. In my opinion, the election could only be canceled If proven fraud was held in the polling stations. “
For this new first round, therefore, four main candidates will compete. George Simion, 38, is leading the voting intentions. Patron of the far -right party Aur, he is a fan of Donald Trump, opposed to military aid to Ukraine, the rights of LGBT+ and defender of a “Sovereign Europe of nations”. He is followed by Nicusor Dan, 55, the current mayor of Bucharest, not affiliated with a party; of crin antonescu, 65, which represents the government coalition of European pro-Union; From Victor Ponta, 52, former prime minister from the Democratic Party. Then comes Elena Lasconi, 52, president of the Opposition Party Union Sauvez Romania, who had finished second behind Calin Georgescu in the first round of the initial election in December. Only two of them will qualify for the second round, scheduled for May 18.
