Surprise Outcome for Romanian Nationalists

by Kenneth Schmidt

Kenneth Schmidt examines the stunning results of Romania’s presidential election, where independent candidate Călin Georgescu, an admirer of Corneliu Codreanu, defied all expectations to lead the first round, shaking the decadent political establishment.

Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom national history lived, through them speaks and spoke the national history and not through the lackeys of the globalist powers that lead Romania today temporarily.

— Călin Georgescu, November 2020

In the back of my mind I thought when I picked up my pen yesterday morning I would be writing a piece on a national-conservative making the presidential runoff in Romania. At least I was hoping so. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the national-conservative gentleman would end up in fourth place and a more radical fellow with Iron-Guardist tendencies would come in first! I was seriously thinking that I would ask one of the pretty baristas at the coffee shop where I hang out, and do a lot of my writing, to pinch my arm to make sure I was not dreaming.

Sure enough, Călin Georgescu, an independent candidate in the presidential race, not affiliated with any political party, came in first with 22.94 % of the vote. He didn’t spend too much on his campaign. Georgescu simply made TikTok videos; lots and lots of TikTok videos. Polls indicated he would only get something like 9% of the vote. Even on election day, the exit polls didn’t give him a snowball’s chance in Hades.

Just about everybody, including this writer, was convinced that the Save Romania Union, a center-right neo-liberal outfit led by candidate Elena Lasconi, would come in first and that George Simion’s Alliance for the Union of Romanians Party, a kind of Trumpist-style national-conservative organization, had an excellent chance for coming in second and making the runoff. Georgescu had been expelled from the AUR in 2022 by Simion for being too radical and praising Corneliu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu în public. Thankfully, upon his amazing victory, Simion praised Georgescu and said that AUR would give him full support in the runoff.

The electoral results were Georgescu 22.94 %, Lasconi 19.8 %, Ciolacu (Social-Democrat) 19.15 % and Simion 13.86 %. The result has caused shock all over Europe. Georgescu is good at speechifying. When he voted he told the press:

For the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel that they do not matter and actually matter the most, the vote is a prayer for the nation.

His life story is an interesting one. He has a Ph.D. in Soil Science. It appears that before 2016 he was very much a globalist and interested in such “leftish” obsessions as “sustainable development” and “human rights.” He was the Director of the UN Global Sustainability Index Institute in Switzerland. He also held various leadership positions in the Club of Rome, a shadowy globalist outfit. He worked for a time for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It appears that some time between 2016 and 2020 he began to become more nationalistic.

Georgescu is critical of NATO and the EU, though he has not advocated for leaving these organizations. He opposed the construction of a NATO missile base at Deveselu. Georgescu denies he is pro-Russian, but appears to want to keep Romania from taking sides in the conflict. He wants to increase imports and reliance on imported goods. Georgescu is in favor of ramping up food and energy production. Apparently, Georgescu is a very observant communicant of the Romanian Orthodox Church and extolls its importance in the life of the nation. He praises both Cornelieu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu as national heroes.

It should be noted that the role of president in Romania is somewhat unique in that the role is not completely symbolic and actually has some power vis-à-vis the prime minister. Romanian presidents have some national security and public order functions, as well as a role in judicial appointments. Since Dr. Georgescu is an independent and has no political party, he will have no direct effect on the parliamentary elections which will take place on December 1st. The runoff will take place on December 9th.

As it stands the only nationalistic party in the country with any strength is Mr. Simion’s AUR. The party is quite new, only coming into existence in 2019. In 2020, it surprised a lot of observers when it picked up sixteen senators and twenty-four seats in the Chamber of Deputies. They also picked up some local positions. This was considered a good showing for a new party.

It’s hard to say at this point if Georgescu can prevail in the runoff. AUR voters will go a long way in helping him along. As for the parliamentary contest, the last poll taken by INSCOP in mid-October puts Lasconi’s PSD-PNL at 30.2% and the AUR at 21.4%. We don’t know if Georgescu has coattails, to use an American political term. The first round of the presidential election was so surprising that anything is possible.