A few more remarks to add to this. A high result for a nationalist candidate is not that surprising, it is just many expected this to be George Simion, the candidate of the nationalist AUR party. The choice of Georgescu's campaign to use TikTok seems to have paid off, given that turnout was actually higher than in the previous presidential election in 2019.
While there are certainly nationalist and xenophobic voters, I highly doubt that this applies to all, or even the majority of people who voted for Georgescu. Instead, there are issues like costs of living, corruption, and general career prospects that are much higher in voters' priorities than liberal values. And sure, the omnipresence of far-left activists is increasingly off-putting, as no one likes being a fascist for expressing even moderate views on LGBT issues.
Russia's presence is very likely, given how easy it is to see how various comments in local media mirror what the Kremlin says. Russia's propaganda machine has been very active in Southeast Europe in recent years, and it is very difficult to counter it when you are being outspent by a magnitude. The ability of social media to amplify negative messages makes it much easier for Russia to spread hatred and distrust.
Finally, this comes at the end of an unpopular coalition between the (nominally) social democrat PSD (successors of the former communist party) and the conservative PNL. As a reminder, the PNL used to be in a coalition with the USR, but internal disagreements broke that government apart, so the PNL turned to its supposedly archrival, the PSD. This put off plenty of right-leaning voters, which is why the PNL's presidential candidate ended up fifth.
My point is things are far more complicated than they may appear from the election result. I would argue Romanians hardly want to leave the EU or even NATO, but they are fed up with corrupt politicians being tolerated by the EU, and by policies that do not appear to be well thought out. The typical thinking is that the current system is rotten to the core, and you need someone really radical to change things. We have been seeing similar thinking everywhere, Donald Trump or Sara Wagenknecht being some of those benefiting from it. When you stay complacent for too long and expect people to fall in line, this is what you get.
Spot on from Zhivko.
A few more remarks to add to this. A high result for a nationalist candidate is not that surprising, it is just many expected this to be George Simion, the candidate of the nationalist AUR party. The choice of Georgescu's campaign to use TikTok seems to have paid off, given that turnout was actually higher than in the previous presidential election in 2019.
While there are certainly nationalist and xenophobic voters, I highly doubt that this applies to all, or even the majority of people who voted for Georgescu. Instead, there are issues like costs of living, corruption, and general career prospects that are much higher in voters' priorities than liberal values. And sure, the omnipresence of far-left activists is increasingly off-putting, as no one likes being a fascist for expressing even moderate views on LGBT issues.
Russia's presence is very likely, given how easy it is to see how various comments in local media mirror what the Kremlin says. Russia's propaganda machine has been very active in Southeast Europe in recent years, and it is very difficult to counter it when you are being outspent by a magnitude. The ability of social media to amplify negative messages makes it much easier for Russia to spread hatred and distrust.
Finally, this comes at the end of an unpopular coalition between the (nominally) social democrat PSD (successors of the former communist party) and the conservative PNL. As a reminder, the PNL used to be in a coalition with the USR, but internal disagreements broke that government apart, so the PNL turned to its supposedly archrival, the PSD. This put off plenty of right-leaning voters, which is why the PNL's presidential candidate ended up fifth.
My point is things are far more complicated than they may appear from the election result. I would argue Romanians hardly want to leave the EU or even NATO, but they are fed up with corrupt politicians being tolerated by the EU, and by policies that do not appear to be well thought out. The typical thinking is that the current system is rotten to the core, and you need someone really radical to change things. We have been seeing similar thinking everywhere, Donald Trump or Sara Wagenknecht being some of those benefiting from it. When you stay complacent for too long and expect people to fall in line, this is what you get.