Romanian politician and agronomist (born 1962)

Călin Georgescu (Romanian: [kəˈlin dʒe̯orˈdʒesku]; born 26 March 1962) is a Romanian far-right[1] politician and agronomist. He has long worked in the field of sustainable development, and served as President of the European Research Centre for the Club of Rome (2013–2015).[2]

Georgescu ran as an independent candidate in the 2024 Romanian presidential election;[3] his views have been described as pro-Russian, anti-NATO, and far-right,[4][5][6] and he has been described as a right-wing populist, ultranationalist,[7][8][9] and conspiracy theorist.[10][11] Initially polling at approximately 5%, Georgescu's support surged during the campaign, and he ultimately received 23% of the vote, finishing first in the initial round.[12]

Following the election, the Romanian security services alleged that Georgescu's campaign had utilized over €1,000,000 in undeclared funds and that the election infrastructure had been subjected to cyber-attacks believed to originate from "a state actor". Based on these allegations, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the results of the first round on 6 December.[13][14][15][16]

On 26 February 2025, Georgescu was detained by police and charged with several offenses, including "incitement to actions against the constitutional order." Authorities also imposed a 60-day ban on his media appearances.[17] Georgescu subsequently filed his candidacy for the 2025 Romanian presidential election, but was barred from running by the Central Electoral Bureau on 9 March.[18] At the time of his exclusion, Georgescu was leading in public opinion polls.[19]

Early life and education

Georgescu was born in the Cotroceni neighborhood of Bucharest, the son of Scarlat Georgescu and Aneta Georgescu, née Popescu.[20] He graduated in 1986 from the Nicolae Bălcescu Institute of Agronomy in Bucharest and obtained his Ph.D. in pedology from the same institute in 1999.[21]

Diplomatic career

In 1991, Georgescu became head of the Office for the Environment of the Romanian Parliament. In 1992, he became an adviser to the then Minister of Environment Marcian Bleahu. He was Secretary General in the Ministry of Environment from 1997 to 1998.[21]

Georgescu acted as the executive director of the National Centre for Sustainable Development in Bucharest from 2000 to 2013, during which time he coordinated the development of two versions of the National Sustainable Development Strategy, in line with the guidelines of the European Strategy for Sustainable Development. He was President of the European Research Centre for the Club of Rome from 2013 to 2015 and the Executive Director of the UN Global Sustainable Index Institute Foundation in Geneva and Vaduz from 2015 to 2016.[2]

Georgescu has worked as the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and hazardous waste,[22] and represented Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Programme.[23]

Political career

Georgescu was proposed as prime minister by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians in 2020 and 2021.[23][24][25] Georgescu ran for president in the 2024 Romanian presidential election. Among his campaign stances were strengthening Romania's defence capabilities, diversifying Romania's diplomatic relations, increased support for farmers, promoting energy and food production, and reducing dependency on imports.[26] He obtained the most votes at 22.95% in the first round of voting on 24 November,[27] and advanced to a runoff scheduled on 8 December along with Elena Lasconi.[28]

On 6 December 2024, the Constitutional Court of Romania cancelled the presidential elections, which will have to be rescheduled for a later date. The court did not provide a reason for the cancellation.[29][14] Russia meddling with the Romanian elections has been mentioned as the foremost reason.[29][14] Georgescu filed an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights against the cancellation, which the ECHR rejected on 21 January 2025 saying that it did not have jurisdiction over the elections.[a][31]

On 6 March 2025 Georgescu definitively lost the trial at ECHR.[32][33] ECHR has motivated that only elections for legislative bodies are covered by human rights stipulations, elections for president are not.[34] Also, there was no evidence for having had an unfair trial.[34] ECHR mentioned that ECHR is not subservient to the European Union.[34]

Political views

In November 2020, Georgescu stated that dictator Ion Antonescu and Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom "the 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".[35] He has also said that the Romanian revolution was used by the West to steal Romanian resources, and has multiple times promoted COVID-19 misinformation.[10]

In November 2024, he spoke with Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. Georgescu said that if elected, he would fight antisemitism, move the Romanian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Bucharest, and ignore the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Netanyahu, despite Romania being a state party to the Rome Statute.[36] Romania accused Israel of interfering in the 2024 Romanian presidential election in favor of Georgescu.[37] On 2 December 2024, the Jewish News Syndicate characterized Georgescu as "—a little-known antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, pro-Russia candidate—projected to win a runoff election for prime minister amid allegations of Russian meddling".[38] Haaretz does not see Georgescu as a friend of the Jews.[39]

On 6 December, the Romanian Constitutional Court unanimously annulled the presidential election process due to additional "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks" favoring Georgescu.[40]

Georgescu has stated that he favors Romania's geopolitical non-alignment between the two power blocs. He denied being an extremist or a fascist, saying, "We remain directly linked to European values, but we must find our (own) values."[41] He spoke about supporting Romanian farmers, traditional values, the Romanian Orthodox Church, and Romania's energy and agricultural self-sufficiency. He said that Romania would respect its commitments to the EU and NATO, but only "to the extent that they will respect theirs" toward Romania.[26][42] He criticised Romania's dependence on international companies in sectors such as food, water and energy. Georgescu accused the arms industry in the United States of fueling the Russo-Ukrainian War, but claimed that, "For me and my people, the most important is the partnership with America." He supported Donald Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine through negotiations.[43]

Several media articles criticized Georgescu for his pro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms to spread information sourced to Russian state media.[44][45][46] This also resulted in him leaving the AUR in 2022.[26] Georgescu also criticised the European Union and NATO, and in a 2021 interview, he described the latter's ballistic missile defense shield in Deveselu as a "shame of diplomacy",[47] and called it a "disgrace".[5] He has also praised Russian president Vladimir Putin as "a man who loves his country". He said that he wanted to engage with, rather than challenge, Russia, because "Security comes from dialogue, not confrontation".[48][26][49] Speaking of the war in Donbas that began in 2014, Georgescu said in 2021: "The situation in Ukraine is clearly manipulated, with the goal of provoking a conflict destined to financially help the military-industrial complex of USA."[46][50] Georgescu has also pledged to end military aid to Ukraine if he is elected president.[51] He also called Ukraine a fictional state and suggested that Romania could annex Ukrainian territories, precisely Northern Bukovina, Budjak and Northern Maramureș.[52] Georgescu also describes himself as "ultra pro" US President Donald Trump.[31]

Georgescu does not believe in the human Moon landing.[53] In a podcast, he also mentioned that carbonated juices contain nanochips, which "enter you like into a laptop",[54] and considers climate change "a global scam", which "has nothing to do with reality".[53][55][56]

In his 14 February 2025 Munich Security Conference Address, US Vice President JD Vance singled out Romania's Constitutional Court's annulment decision, on their most recent presidential election, as one of several examples of Europe's not adhering to America's most current democratic principles.[57][58][59]

Elena Trifan speaks of Georgescu's fascist rhetoric.[60]

TikTok scandal

Georgescu's campaign used social media, especially TikTok, where his videos had more than 52 million views in a four day period and attracted the attention of younger voters. The Romanian Supreme Council of National Defence said that TikTok had given Georgescu "preferential treatment" leading to his "massive exposure". TikTok said Georgescu was treated the same as other candidates and "was subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions".[61]

On 4 December 2024, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis declassified and published Romanian intelligence agency documents, which stated that Georgescu's growth was "not organic" and was funded and coordinated by a "state actor". Iohannis declassified the documents at the request of the intelligence agencies. The documents said that Georgescu's advertising campaign slogan "Balance and uprightness"[b] was in its methodology identical to an earlier TikTok campaign slogan "Brother near brother" purchased by Russian actors and targeting Ukraine. Romanian media said that the person who funded the Georgescu campaign was a right-wing supporter named Eugen Sechila. The documents said that the campaign was coordinated through Telegram and Discord channels, where advice was given to participants on how to bypass TikTok security mechanisms, avoid geoblocking and bans for comment spam. One involved account "bogpr" identified as registered for a Romanian citizen Bogdan Peșchir, made donations to other TikTok accounts of over €1 million, including €381,000 to accounts directly involved in promoting Georgescu's campaign. The South African advertising company FA Agency contacted a number of TikTok influencers and offered €1,000 for promoting Georgescu's videos. In total, over 25,000 accounts were involved in promoting these videos.[62][63] The Constitutional Court annulled the results of the election on 6 December. It did not provide a reason for the cancellation. Georgescu's opponent, Elena Lasconi, said, "The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting."[13]

The Romanian investigative outlet Snoop wrote that the "Balance and uprightness" campaign on TikTok was funded by the National Liberal Party, which hired the Romanian firm Kensington Communication to run the campaign. Kensington Communications sent a script to 130 influencers for use through a newly established platform called FameUp.[64] Although the hashtag was changed from "Balance and seriousness" to "Balance and uprightness" (the firm Kensington Communication claims it was done without consulting them), the influencers still followed the script given to them. Then at least some of these influencers added "Călin Georgescu" in the comments – in effect, lending their support to Georgescu.[64]

Georgescu reported his own income during the electoral campaign as 0 Euro, and his campaign spending as 0 Euro (all candidates have to fill mandatory reports of their income and campaign spending).[65] Romanian businessman Dan Șucu estimated the cost of Georgescu's electoral campaign at €50 million.[66]

Detainment and investigation

On 26 February 2025, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Georgescu for various alleged offenses including campaign funding abuses, support of fascist groups and "incitement to actions against the constitutional order".[1] The same day, Georgescu was detained by police as he was on his way to register his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.[67] His questioning coincided with police searches at 47 home addresses, according to the General Prosecutor's Office.[68][69] Georgescu denied all wrongdoing and stated authorities were "looking to invent evidence to justify stealing the election and to do anything in their efforts to block a new candidacy from me".[68] Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party stated on social media that "the judiciary is independent and the law must be applied regardless of persons".[70]

Prosecutors ordered Georgescu not to appear in the media or create any new social media accounts for the next 60 days.[17] These bans are set to expire one week before the 4 May 2025 presidential election.[71]

Investigation established that Georgescu's security team was composed largely of mercenaries who fought along "Wagner Group", most notably Horațiu Potra, Marin Burcea, Eugen Sechila and Dorina Mihai, all with links to "Wagner" and "Akhmat Kadyrov Regiment".[72]

2025 presidential campaign and disqualification

On 7 March 2025, Georgescu filed his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.[73] On 9 March, Romania's Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) rejected Georgescu's candidacy.[18][why?] At the time of his disqualification, Georgescu was leading opinion polls with about 40% of the first round vote.[19] The BEC referenced the Constitutional Court's annulling of the 2024 election in its decision.[74] Georgescu appealed the decision; however, on 11 March 2025, the Constitutional Court upheld the Central Electoral Bureau's decision.[75]

Personal life

Georgescu is married and has three children.[26] He is a judo practitioner.[11][49]

Publications

Romania at Crossroads, Editura Logos, București, 2014 and Editura Christiana, 2016 (second revised edition and the country project)

Pentru un ideal comun [In Search of Common Purpose] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Compania Publishing House. 2012. ISBN 9789731960920. OCLC 809933615.

"România după criză. Reprofesionalizarea" [Romania After the Crisis. Reshaping Professional Worth], coordinators Mircea Malița [ro] and Călin Georgescu, Compania Publishing House, Bucharest, 2010. ISBN 9789731960845. OCLC 826656439

"Trezirea la realitate" [A Wake-up Call], in România post-criză. Reprofesionalizarea României III [Romania after the Crisis], 3rd IPID Report, Bucharest, 2010, pp. 5–15.

"Reclădirea capitalului uman" [Rebuilding Human Capital], in Șansa României: oamenii. Reprofesionalizarea României II [A Chance for Romania: Betting on People], 2nd IPID Report, București, 2009, pp. 7–18.

"Romania at the Eve of the Third Millennium", in Millennium III, special issue on "Which Forces are Driving Europe?, European Conference of the National Associations of the Club of Rome", Bucharest, 23–24 May 2008, pp. 95–103.

"Reprofesionalizarea României" [Reshaping Professional Worth in Romania], 1st IPID Report, Bucharest, 2008; author and editor.

National Sustainable Development Strategy of Romania 2013-2020-2030, (available in Romanian and English), Government of Romania, Bucharest, 2008; Project Manager.

Planurile Locale de Dezvoltare Durabilă "Agenda Locală 21" [Local Sustainable Development Plans under Local Agenda 21], for 40 local authorities, 2000–2008; Project Manager.

National Sustainable Development Strategy, (available in Romanian and English), United Nations Development Programme, Bucharest, 1999; Project Manager.

România 2020, co-editor with Mircea Malița et al., Editura Conspress, București, 1998. ISBN 9789739623391. OCLC 895707059

Notes