Far-right candidates have entered the May election fray following the exclusion of ultranationalist Călin Georgescu.
Romanian far-right party leader George Simion has been cleared to run in the country’s tense presidential do-over vote in May.
Romania’s electoral bureau announced the decision in a statement on Saturday.
Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the second-largest party in last year’s general election, had bowed out of the presidential race in support of ultranationalist Călin Georgescu. But Simion announced his candidacy after all after Georgescu was barred from running in the May ballot.
Simion and Anamaria Gavrilă, the leader of the far-right Party of Young People, announced Wednesday they would both enter the race in defense of the “sovereignist movement,” after Romania’s top court confirmed Georgescu’s exclusion from this year’s contest — though not necessarily from future elections. If both Simion and Gavrilă are cleared to run, one will withdraw, they said.
Georgescu emerged the shock winner of the first round of the presidential election in November, before the Constitutional Court canceled the results over concerns that Moscow had targeted Romania with an “aggressive hybrid action” to affect the vote.
“We passed the [electoral bureau], now let’s see if we pass the [Constitutional Court] and return to democracy,” Simion commented Saturday on his Facebook page.
Also Saturday, the electoral bureau rejected the candidacy of yet another far-right firebrand; Diana Șoșoacă. The MEP and leader of the ultranationalist party S.O.S Romania, who was also barred from entering the presidential race last year, said she’d appeal the decision, according to a Digi24 report.
Candidates have to collect a minimum of 200,000 signatures to enter the presidential race. Simion said he had gathered 604,000 and predicted Gavrilă would collect a “very high number” as well.
Simion placed fourth in the now-canceled first round in November, behind Georgescu, the liberal Elena Lasconi and center-left Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
