The Constitutional Court of Romania refused to annul the results of the presidential election, as demanded by the leader of the far-right AUR party, the candidate for Romanian presidency, George Simion, after his defeat.
This is reported by the Romanian TV channel Digi 24.
The judges rejected the motion to annul the election. The decision is final. It will be forwarded to the Central Election Bureau. Later today, May 22, the court will convene to approve the results of the presidential election, which was won by pro-European politician Nicusor Dan.
George Simion reacted to the decision and said that the court allegedly "continued the coup dʼétat". He intends to "continue the fight".
Simion challenged the election because he believes the reason is the same as the annulment of the election results last December — outside interference by both state and non-state “players”. Simion claims that this time there is confirmed evidence. According to him, neither France nor Moldova can interfere in the elections of another state.
What is it about?
Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that a “Western European government” had allegedly asked his messenger to “silence conservative voices in Romania” ahead of the presidential election. He was presumably referring to the French government, hinting at this with a baguette emoji (“guess which one 🥖”). Durov wrote that he refused to limit the freedom of Romanian users and would not block their political channels.
France has rejected accusations by Telegram founder Durov of attempting to influence the Romanian election. The French Foreign Ministry recalled that the first round of the presidential election in Romania, which took place in December 2024, was annulled due to digital and financial interference by entities linked to Russia.
Durov also said that he was allegedly personally asked by the head of Franceʼs foreign intelligence service to influence the elections in Romania. They deny this.
What preceded
After the results of the second round of the presidential election were announced, George Simion admitted defeat and congratulated his opponent, the pro-European mayor of Bucharest Nicusor Dan on his victory.
With 100% of the ballots counted, the pro-European candidate received 53.6%, while the far-right candidate George Simion received 46.4%. More than 6.1 million Romanians voted for Nicușor Dan, while around 5.3 million voted for Simion. The official results will be final once they are approved by Romaniaʼs Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, before all the ballots were counted, George Simion declared that he had already won, but attributed it to Călin Georgescu. Călin Georgescu is a former pro-Russian candidate for president of Romania. Romaniaʼs Constitutional Court annulled the results of last yearʼs first round of presidential elections. Georgescu, like Simion, opposed military aid to Ukraine.
On social media, Simion also called himself president. However, in X, the politician declared himself the new president of Chad — mixing up the flags.
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