Georgescu’s TikTok campaign powers surprise in Romania election
According to partial results, after processing 99.94% of the official records, Călin Georgescu is in the lead with 22.95%, followed by Elena Lasconi at 19.17%.
Lasconi surpasses Ciolacu, claims second place
Former journalist Elena Lasconi, candidate for the Save Romania Union (USR), has overtaken her rival Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, rising to second place with over 19% of the votes. The vote difference between the two candidates exceeds 400 votes.
Initial report
In the second round of Romania’s presidential election, independent candidate Călin Georgescu and Marcel Ciolacu could face off. Elena Lasconi is in third place, while George Simion is in fourth.
After centralizing 99.76% of the votes cast in Sunday’s election, independent candidate Călin Georgescu is in the lead with 22.91% of the vote.
He is followed by PSD candidate Marcel Ciolacu (19.19%), USR candidate Elena Lasconi (19.14%), George Simion (13.79%) from AUR, and Nicolae Ciucă (8.8%) – the PNL candidate.
The official partial results differ from the exit polls, which had placed Marcel Ciolacu and Elena Lasconi in the lead, while Călin Georgescu was in third place.
Călin Georgescu, who ran his campaign primarily on TikTok, has been a huge surprise in the first round. A little-known candidate with ultra-nationalist rhetoric, legionary views, anti-European stances, and occasional pro-Russian opinions, Georgescu won the first round of the race for the highest office in the state. Ignored by both polls and other candidates, the 62-year-old agricultural engineer seemingly came out of nowhere and garnered nearly 23% of the vote after running an intense social media campaign, particularly on TikTok.
In the first round of the election, 9,465,213 voters participated, accounting for 52.55% of eligible voters. Abroad, 821,659 citizens voted, with around 81,000 voters casting their ballots in the Republic of Moldova.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
