The Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the result of the first round of the presidential election, a few days before the second round that was to take place.

This means that the process has to start again, with the government having to set the date for a new vote.
The first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an almost unknown far-right skeptic who previously praised Vladimir Putin.

The court’s decision comes after the declassification of intelligence documents suggesting that Georgescu benefited from a massive influence operation – carried out from abroad – to interfere with the outcome of the vote.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court’s decision to cancel was “the only correct decision”. Supreme Court judges met on Friday morning after announcing a day earlier that they would not discuss new information about possible outside influence in the election before the second round of voting.

The law states that if an election is annulled, it must be restarted on the second Sunday after the annulment date — which would mean December 22.
But the court decided to ask the government to restart the entire electoral process and therefore the election campaign.

Last week, the court ordered a recount of votes cast in Sunday’s first round, following allegations that the social media platform TikTok had given “preferential treatment” to surprise winner Calin Georgescu.

Georgescu, a radical without a political party, has been campaigning mainly on TikTok. The platform said it was “categorically false to claim that his account was treated differently from that of any other candidate.”

He won 23% of the vote, compared to 19% for the runner-up, Elena Lasconi, of the opposition Union for Saving Romania.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, of the ruling Social Democratic Party, came third.

The Constitutional Court also rejected complaints filed by two of the losing candidates who accused Georgescu of illegal campaign financing.
This week, Georgescu denied to the BBC that he was the Moscow man. He claims that the political establishment could not cope with his success and was trying to block it.

The country is now in completely new territory, politically. And no one knows what comes next.