Pro-EU Romanians form a unity coalition ahead of election rerun

Romanians are still absorbing the shock of a first-round election result that saw a previously unknown ultranationalist, pro-Russian candidate finish in first place in the race for president and a collection of new parties with pro-Russian platforms capture about one-third of the vote. The country’s constitutional court annulled the result last week following the release of evidence that Russia had interfered, but the country’s pro-EU parties and politicians are working to build a unified front ahead of an election rerun sometime early next year.

Leaders of the Social Democratic party and their current coalition partners, the center-right National Liberal party, the opposition centrist Save Romania Union party, and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR, are trying toforge a common election platform to pool their strength against any recurrence of the first result. They may even agree to back a single presidential candidate.

Declassified intelligence found that someone created thousands of social media accounts to promote pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu – who said he had spent no money on his campaign – on TikTok and Telegram. On Monday, Romanian investigators arrested two men for allegedly planning to trigger protests at the court’s annulment of the result.

The Kremlin denies any political interference in Romania, a former Warsaw Pact country that’s now an EU and NATO member.