How a pro-Putin TikTok star topped Romania’s presidential poll

The pro-Putin, far-right politician who surprisingly won the first round of Romania’s presidential elections on Sunday had recently gone viral on social media without pollsters registering his surge.

Călin Georgescu, 62, a former honorary member of the ultranationalist AUR party, had run as an independent and was credited with single-digit support for most of the campaign. But his campaign clips on TikTok depicting him as a horseback riding, martial arts fighting anti-establishment figure started trending in recent days.

“It’s a TikTok win,” said Romanian analyst and historian Ion M. Ionita. “You don’t need a party. You just need to go viral on social media, and he has gone viral for sure.”

Ionita noted that with mainstream parties struggling to stay credible after years of scandals and economic malaise, “voters are vulnerable to messages that have no connection with reality”.

Georgescu, who espouses religious, ultraconservative views that appeal to rural and young male voters alike, said that he spent “zero” money on his campaign but that he put his faith in God and managed to win 23 per cent of the votes.

He has claimed foreign business interests are defrauding Romania, forcing it to import food when its riches should allow it to be self-sustaining.

Since no candidate secured 50 per cent, Georgescu will face liberal leader Elena Lasconi in the run-off vote on December 8.

Romania’s electoral authority last week urged Georgescu to take down his clips that were clearly intended as campaign ads, but not labelled as such. While his official TikTok account followed suit, several fan accounts continued to carry his campaign videos.

Georgescu’s success is the latest sign of how Trump-style populism is gaining ground in Europe and marks a significant shift in Romanian attitudes towards Russia and its war in Ukraine.

Over a third of Romania’s voters backed Ukraine-sceptic, Nato and EU-hostile candidates — when adding Georgescu’s votes to those cast in favour of AUR leader George Simion, whom pollsters believed to be the favourite ultranationalist candidate.

Georgescu has criticised Romania’s Nato membership and the military bases on its soil, including US missile defence deployments, arguing that this was confrontational towards Russia at a time when war was being waged in neighbouring Ukraine.

In 2022, just days after Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Georgescu said the Russian president was “a man who loved his country”. More recently he called for an immediate end to the war, a Kremlin line that Kyiv and its western allies have said would amount to Ukraine’s capitulation.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Georgescu’s win on Monday, saying he advocated for an alliance with Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was not familiar with Georgescu’s position on relations with Russia and would not make a prediction about the outcome of the presidential vote.

“Călin Georgescu, a pro-Russian candidate who admires Putin and undermines Ukraine’s legitimacy, would be a dangerous choice for Romania especially with war at our borders,” said Siegfried Muresan, a centre-right member of the European parliament.

He said the result was part of “Russia’s hybrid war against European democracy”, noting that pro-EU President Maia Sandu barely won in neighbouring Moldova last month amid a massive influence campaign from Moscow. “Now Romanians must do the same” in the run-off, he added.

Romanian authorities have not opened any inquiries into Russian meddling, but a pro-Moscow president in another EU and Nato member state would be in Russia’s interest, said Radu Magdin, a political consultant based in Bucharest.

“It’s an in-your-face moment for Russia. They came back at Bucharest for its recent pro-western role,” he said.

Romania has given more than €1bn worth of military equipment to Ukraine, including a critical air defence system, and hosts a US air base close to the Black Sea shore.

In the event of a victory Georgescu will hold the most powerful office in Romania, overseeing the military and foreign relations. He would have the right to nominate the prime minister and conduct coalition talks.

The result represents a bruising defeat for centrist candidates, two of whom had served as prime ministers in recent years, who accused one another of corruption, mismanagement and backroom scheming, allowing Georgescu to appeal to voters as a radical anti-establishment candidate.

Georgescu scored extremely well among Romanians abroad, where he received 43 per cent of the vote. He also came in first in a third of Romania’s 41 counties.

Although Georgescu does not have a party, AUR was quick to endorse him for the run-off as it seeks to capitalise on his popularity ahead of parliamentary elections on December 1. SOS, another fringe far-right party that split from AUR, also endorsed him.

“People are saying this is how you hack a democracy,” said Costin Ciobanu of Aarhus University in Denmark said. “Everyone was looking at Moldova a few weeks ago . . . but this is a country of 20 million.”

Additional reporting by Andy Bounds in Brussels