Following the cancellation of the election, a pro-Russian candidate has been banned. The fundamental dispute continues in Romania

Monday, Mar 10, 2025

Protests erupt in Romania after election commission disqualifies populist candidate Călin Georgescu amid political turmoil.

🔗 Read the article on denikreferendum.cz


[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Following a decision by the commission to disqualify populist politician Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of presidential elections last year, the issue has escalated into a fundamental debate about the nature of democracy in Romania. The central electoral commission stated that Georgescu’s candidacy lacked legal requirements for the new elections, with further explanation expected this week. Georgescu is currently being investigated by the Romanian police on charges related to last year’s elections, including illegal use of Russian money and misleading authorities regarding campaign financing. His supporters view these actions as a conspiracy by corrupt Western elites aiming to eliminate competition. Violent protests erupted in Bucharest following the commission’s decision, leading to clashes with police involving hundreds of demonstrators. Georgescu has become a prominent figure for the anti-establishment bloc and far-right elements, advocating for a sovereign Romanian path outside the EU and NATO, returning to traditional life, and ending support for Ukraine. He won 22.9% in last year’s first round and had polling support exceeding forty percent in February of this year. Georgescu is noted as one of Europe’s far-right politicians who openly supports Elon Musk.


🔗 Read the original article

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.