Romanian elections and record-breaking protests. Eyes on Southeastern Europe

Romania's controversial elections, cancelled in December, are to be held on 4 May, with a run-off on 18 May. And although Călin Georgescu, the former far-right candidate who won the first round of the annulled elections, is watching the race from the stands while being investigated for offences including actions against the constitutional order, he remains influential.

In his recent interview with "Trumpist" political commentator Tucker Carlson, Georgescu took the opportunity to compare himself to the current American president. This is nothing new, as he's been doing it throughout his presidential campaign. “What happened to me is just a copy-paste of what happened to Trump, but with slight differences. I have been accused of election interference, Russian influence, as was the case with Trump in his past,” Georgescu said in the interview, as quoted by Daniel Toșa in the magazine Newsweek Romania.

Georgescu rejected any links with Russia, despite support from senior Russian figures including President Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “I mean there is no evidence and of course, speaking about these foreign influences, I would like to say that the system in Romania was coordinated and controlled,” said Georgescu as quoted by Newsweek, which also mentioned an official TikTok report confirming a network of more than 27,000 accounts promoting Georgescu and the far-right party AUR through false online engagements on the platform. TikTok is a very influential channel. Albania shut it down for a year amid concern over youth violence, as Kostas Koukoumakas reported on  iMEdD Lab, at the same time raising concerns about freedom of expression. 

Ultimately, Georgescu’s eulogious words for Donald Trump, the support he has received from Trump admirers, the visit scheduled by Donald Trump Jr. in Romania days before the elections and the many favoring Kremlin voices are all signs of American and Russian interference. 

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for resolving Russia's military conflict in Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “likes” him. “I don't think Putin is a bad person,” he said according to Bulgarian news platform Mediapool, adding, “he's super smart.”

For now, the polls aggregated by Hotnews show that the favourite to win the elections is George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), with around 35% of the vote. He is followed by the left-wing independent Victor Ponta (23%), the liberal independent and mayor of Bucharest Nicușor Dan (16%) and the candidate of the ruling liberal-social-democratic coalition, Crin Antonescu (15%). Nicușor Dan trended in Moldova recently after being quoted by Moldovan investigative newspaper Ziarul de Gardă that he would "request NATO intervention if Russia attacks Moldova” and that he would prioritise Moldova’s EU accession. It remains to be seen how Romanians will vote as Simion embodies the “martyr” Georgescu, ruled out by the very institutions and regime that fed Romanians’ frustration across the years, as political scientist Dani Sandu discusses in Romanian news platform PressOne. 

Bulgaria and Croatia

A political conflict takes place in Bulgaria, where Mediapool reports that some politicians want former Prime Minister and GERB party’s leader Boiko Borisov (center-right) to run for president in 2027, potentially shifting the country's political dynamics. The same Bulgarian publication covered socialist president Rumen Radev’s controversial statements claiming that "the war in Ukraine is dragging Europe to the bottom”, reflecting Bulgaria's complicated position between EU solidarity and historical ties to Russia.

Croatia’s president was also tied to Russia in the last month. Zoran Milanović was labeled  "a Russian player” by Vlado Vurušić from the Croatian daily Jutarnji List after the president opposed the Ukraine aid during a visit in Montenegro.

Updates on protests across the region 

On 15 March tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied against Prime minister Viktor Orbán with promises of repression, according to Mediapool. Also, after the Croatian Jutarnji List reported that Viktor Orbán’s government plans to ban Budapest Pride, the law banning LGBT Pride Events passed. Cristian González Cabrera from the international abuse-fighting institution Human Rights Watch urged the EU Commission to take legal action to protect rights to free expression.

Greek protests continue over the Tempi train disaster, with the daily Efimerida ton Syntakton covering how students took to the streets after a military parade, showing sustained public anger over the incident.

As citizen protests push back against authoritarian tendencies, Southeastern Europe remains caught between European integration and nationalist impulses, while Russia and other external actors seek to exert influence.