BUCHAREST -- Pro-Russian far-right candidate Calin Georgescu has won a surprise victory in the first round of EU and NATO member Romania's presidential vote and will face pro-Western center-right candidate Elena Lasconi in the December 8 runoff.
Complete preliminary results of the November 24 election showed independent Georgescu -- who has been criticized for his anti-NATO and anti-Semitic statements -- won with 22.94 percent of the vote.
Lasconi, a former TV journalist and small-town mayor for the center-right Save Romania Union (USR), trailed in early results reporting, but edged ahead of the initial favorite, leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
With 19.17 percent of the vote, Lasconi advanced by a wafer-thin margin over Ciolacu's 19.15 percent, which prompted Ciolacu to concede and announce his resignation as leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The margin between the two was just 2,742 votes.
"I sent a message to Mrs. Lasconi and extended my congratulations," Ciolacu told the media.
Ciolacu's third-place finish means that for the first time since 1989, the PSD, the heir to Romania's Communist Party, won't have a candidate in the presidential runoff.
Lasconi has yet to declare victory, telling journalists just that "it's been devilishly difficult."
Hundreds of pro-Lasconi protesters, mostly students and other young people, demonstrated on the evening of November 25 in downtown Bucharest on University Square in front of the National Theater to show their dissatisfaction with Georgescu.
They shouted, "Do not vote for a dictator" as they gathered peacefully, though there was a minor incident with a pro-Georgescu supporter carrying a Bible. Georgescu frequently quoted biblical phrases in his campaign.
When the man appeared in front of the demonstrators, they booed him and he started running between cars on the road. Romanian police said he tried to provoke the demonstrators.
Police officers intervened to prevent a possible conflict, the police said in a statement. The man tried to flee and was "immobilized and taken to the police station," the statement said. The protest continued without further incident.
Some demonstrators expressed surprise that Georgescu came first in the elections.
"Like everyone else, I expected this man to take what he had in the polls, somewhere around 5 percent," Alex Zlavog said. "It was a surprise, and I think we have to ask ourselves very serious problems about polling agencies and what happens with these polls."
Georgescu thanked his voters, telling them, "Your voice was heard." He also rejected the accusations of extremism and fascism, saying they were "totally false" and he is "completely dedicated to the Romanian people."
The runoff will be held a week after the parliamentary elections on December 1 -- a faceoff the media is portraying as a battle between East and West.
George Simion of the ultranationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) had 13.86 percent, a surprisingly low score after many predicted he would advance to the runoff together with Ciolacu.
Critics have charged Simion with also being Russian-friendly and, while he wants Romania to remain in NATO, he has also said Bucharest should be neutral.
The winner of the second round will succeed the outgoing center-right incumbent, Klaus Iohannis, who is completing his second and final term after a decade in office.
Fourteen candidates officially registered in the race, but liberal ex-Prime Minister Ludovic Orban last week announced he was withdrawing and threw his weight behind Lasconi.
Election officials put the turnout at just over 52 percent, or about 9.44 million voters casting their ballots.
In 2019, total first-round turnout was 51.18 percent. In the second round, it rose to 55.1 percent.
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Romanians Hope For 'A Better Future' As They Elect President
Georgescu, an obscure figure who held positions in Romania's Foreign Ministry and at the UN environmental agency UNEP, started as a member of AUR and was twice put forward as a possible prime minister by Simion's party.
But Georgescu's anti-Semitic statements made him too radical even for AUR, which eventually broke with him when the authorities opened a criminal investigation on his radical views.
However, even without the overt backing of a party, Georgescu performed unexpectedly well both inside the country and in Romania's Western diaspora, where he took more than 43 percent of the vote, ostensibly by using the TikTok social media platform to call for an end to Romania's aid to Ukraine.
Under the incumbent Iohannis, Romania has turned into a key ally of Ukraine, not only providing training and military equipment but playing a key role in transporting Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods to global markets.
The 62-year-old, who has been criticized in the Romanian media for his pro-Russian and anti-NATO statements, claimed his shocking victory was a vote for "peace," echoing statements by other pro-Moscow European leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"Tonight, the Romanian people cried out for peace. And they shouted very loudly, extremely loudly", he said late on November 24.
In previous interviews, Georgescu urged closer ties with Moscow, claiming that "Russian wisdom" was Romania's best chance, although he has not publicly backed Russia's war in Ukraine.
Asked about Georgescu's upset victory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on November 25 said Russia did not know much about him or his opinions.
"I would not make any predictions yet. We probably cannot say that we are that familiar with the world view of this candidate as far as relations with our country are concerned."
Lasconi, a former small-town mayor and TV journalist, was the only presidential candidate who opposed the idea of Ukraine giving up land to Russia in a peace deal, saying doing so would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"If Ukraine cedes territory, Putin won't stop," she had said. "We need to help Ukraine win this war," she said during the only presidential debate, held last week.
She was also the most bullish among the top candidates on NATO, calling for the military alliance to have a greater presence in Romania.
Lasconi garnered 56 percent of the Romanian vote in Moldova, where more than 80,000 Romanian passport holders showed up to vote. Moldova was part of Romania before World War II and the countries share a common language and history. Many Moldovans have acquired Romanian citizenship, which gives them the right to travel and work in the West.
Some analysts said Georgescu's shock victory was also a result of mounting disillusion with Romania's entrenched political elites among young Romanians, many of whom leave the country because of what they say is a lack of opportunities.
Rima, a voter at a Bucharest polling station, told RFE/RL, "There should be more opportunities for young people, so we don't have to leave the country after we graduate from high school or college."
"The president should be more open-minded on some topics, especially international ones. That's what I want: to live in a free country where we as young people have a voice," she said, without specifying her candidate.
Romania's president has significant decision-making powers, including on matters of national security and foreign policy. Elected for a five-year term, the president can also reject party nominees for prime minister and government nominees for judicial appointments.