Presidential elections in Romania: far-right Georgescu and pro-Western Lasconi made it to the second round

100% of votes were counted in the first round of the presidential election, which was held on Sunday, November 24 in Romania. In the second round, far-right politician Celin Georgescu and liberal pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi will meet.

This is evidenced by the data of the Central Election Committee of Romania.

Georgescu was supported by more than 2 million voters (22.94% of the total), Lasconi by more than 1 million 772 thousand (19.18%). She overtook the current Prime Minister of the country, Marcel Čolaka, who received about 1 769 000 votes (19.15%). The gap between them was 2.7 thousand votersʼ votes.

According to the media, the results of the first round "caused a shock in the Romanian society". Previous polls predicted that the left-wing Prime Minister Čolaku and the head of the "Alliance for the Unification of Romanians" (AUR) George Simion will make it to the second round. After the announcement of the results of the CEC, Çolaku submitted his resignation from the post of chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

The candidate from the "Union for the Rescue of Romania" (USR) party started with a handicap of 500,000 votes, which gradually decreased. Opposition leaders Ludovic Orban and Bucharest Mayor Nikusor Dan called on Romanians living in Canada and the United States to participate in the elections. The day before, Orbán withdrew his candidacy in favor of Lasconi.

At the televised presidential debate on November 18, almost all candidates said that Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia. Elena Lasconi was the only presidential candidate who spoke against such an idea, Radio Svoboda writes. She said that this would encourage Putin to make new conquests.

Celin Georgescu is a non-party candidate. Previously, he was in the far-right nationalist "Alliance for the Unification of Romanians", but he was expelled as too radical: Georgescu endorsed the leaders of the Romanian fascist movement "Iron Guard", writes the BBC. He is called a pro-Russian politician, he opposed aid to Ukraine and criticized NATO.

• Currently, the representative of the National Liberals Klaus Iohannis is the president of Romania. He has been in office for two terms, so he cannot participate in the elections. During his presidency, Romania became a key ally of Ukraine, not only providing training and military equipment, including the Patriot anti-missile defense system, but also playing a key role in transporting Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods to world markets.

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