FILE PHOTO: Presidential candidate Calin Georgescu arrives for a televised debate in Bucharest, Romania, November 13, 2024. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS/File Photo
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -A hard-right critic of NATO who has praised Russia is set to face a centre-right opposition leader in a presidential election run-off in Romania that could undermine its pro-Western stance after a shock outcome in the first-round vote.
Independent hard-right politician Calin Georgescu, 62, won 22.94% of votes in Sunday's voting, the electoral authority said. Centre-right contender Elena Lasconi, leader of the opposition Save Romania Union, lay second with 19.18%.
The outcome was a shock as pre-election opinion polls had made leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu the frontrunner. Ciolacu said he would resign as party leader following the result but would remain in the role of prime minister until a parliamentary election scheduled on Dec. 1.
The candidate of the centre-right Liberals, Ciolacu's coalition partners, also failed to secure a place in the election run-off, which will be held on Dec. 8.
Campaigning focused largely on the soaring cost of living in Romania, which is a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and has the EU's biggest share of people at risk of poverty.
"I have voted for the wronged, the humiliated, those who feel they do not matter in this world," Georgescu said on Sunday. "Today, the vote is a prayer for the nation."
Lasconi attempted to highlight her pro-Western stance in comments made late on Monday: "Yes, Europe. Yes, NATO."
Georgescu had been polling in low-single digits before the vote and ran a Tik Tok-driven campaign.
"Just imagine, we are in a position where we could have a far-right president," political scientist Cristian Pirvulescu said. "This is where the establishment parties have led us, first by vehemently denying the existence of a hybrid war and then by falling into it. His chances of winning are high."
Romania's sovereign euro bonds fell nearly 2 cents on Monday following the first round of voting.
Asked about the election outcome, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "I would not make any predictions yet. We probably cannot say that we are that familiar with the world view of this candidate as far as relations with our country are concerned."
"For now, we understand very clearly the current leadership of Romania, which is not a friendly country to us. We will of course watch how the electoral processes develop and who wins."
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION LOOMS
A few hundred people gather in central Bucharest on Monday evening to protest against Georgescu, some carrying banners "No, thank you, CG".
But hard-right groupings are likely to receive an electoral boost from his success when the southeast European country of 19 million votes in the Dec. 1 parliamentary election.
Mainstream parties have not officially endorsed either candidate in the presidential run-off on Dec. 8.
Georgescu is a former member of a hard-right opposition party who has praised Ion Antonescu, Romania's de facto World War Two leader who was sentenced to death for his part in Romania's Holocaust, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of a pre-war violent anti-Semitic movement.
Georgescu has called a NATO ballistic missile defence shield in Romania a "shame of diplomacy" and questioned whether the Western military alliance would protect any of its members if they were attacked by Russia.
He said Romania's best chance lay with "Russian wisdom," but has refused to say explicitly whether he supports Russia.
On Monday, he spoke about the need for Romania to maintain "neutrality", in an echo of rhetoric often used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"There is no East or West. There is only Romania and the peace of our people. Our economic and social stability comes from an absolutely necessary neutrality."
Romania, which was under Communist rule for four decades until 1989, shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine. Since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Romania has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defence battery.
In Izvorani, a village near capital Bucharest from which Georgescu ran his campaign, Alexandru Stelu Ghita wondered if the country could be repaired.
"Everything was sold off, what can be repaired, agriculture is working badly, industry is working badly," he said.
Pirvulescu said retaining control of parliament would be important for pro-Western forces to serve as a counterbalance to Georgescu if he becomes president.
The president, who is limited to two five-year terms, has a semi-executive role which includes heading Romania's armed forces and chairing the council that decides on military aid.
The president represents Romania at EU and NATO summits and appoints the prime minister, chief judges, prosecutors and secret service heads. The current head of state, Klaus Iohannis, won power in 2014 on a promise to bolster the fight against endemic corruption.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Alistair Bell)
