Romanian populist Calin Georgescu announced his retirement from politics after being barred from running in the country’s presidential election rerun this month.
The decision comes after Georgescu ran for president late last year and emerged victorious in the first round of voting. However, a top Romanian court then annulled the result after allegations emerged of electoral violations and Russian interference. Georgescu was later banned from participating in this month’s contest, which was won by pro-European Union candidate Nicusor Dan.
‘I choose to be a passive observer of public and social life,’ the 63-year-old Georgescu said in a video posted online late Monday. ‘I choose to remain outside any political party structure … I am not affiliated with any political group in any way.’
Georgescu – who ran as an independent in November – said he made his decision to take a step back following the conclusion of the presidential race, which for him indicated ‘the sovereignist movement has come to a close.’
‘Even though this political chapter has ended, I am convinced that the values and ideals we fought for together remain steadfast,’ he added. ‘My dear ones, I have always said that we would make history, not politics.’
In February, prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Georgescu, accusing him of incitement to undermine the constitutional order, election campaign funding abuses, and founding or supporting fascist, racist, xenophobic, or antisemitic organizations, among other charges. On Tuesday, he was due to appear at the prosecutor’s office in Bucharest.
Despite what appeared to be a sprawling social media campaign promoting him, Georgescu had declared zero campaign spending in last year’s contest. A Romanian court then made the unprecedented move to annul the election.
‘This December, Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors,’ Vice President JD Vance said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February.
‘Now, as I understand it, the argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the Romanian elections, but I’d ask my European friends to have some perspective. You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,’ Vance added.
Georgescu sparked controversy for describing Romanian fascist and nationalist leaders from the 1930s and 1940s as national heroes, according to the Associated Press. He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past as ‘a man who loves his country’ and has questioned Ukraine’s statehood, but he claims not to be pro-Russian.
Georgescu has argued the election was ‘canceled illegally and unconstitutionally,’ and after he was barred from the May rerun, he accused the authorities of ‘inventing evidence to justify the theft’ of the elections.
Earlier this year, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bucharest in a show of support for Georgescu.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.