Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll.
Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election.
Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting.
Photo: AFP
However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor.
On Saturday, an electoral commission statement said it had also taken the “decision to reject the candidacy of Diana Sosoaca.”
It said that the country’s constitutional court had already banned her from standing in last year’s election for making declarations “contrary to democratic values.”
However, the electoral office did validate the candidacy of George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).
Following the exclusion of Georgescu, he is the most prominent figure on the far right still in the running.
Sosoaca, a 49-year-old member of the European Parliament known for her pro-Russia views wrote on Facebook: “I am proof that we do not live in a democracy.” She said she would appeal the ruling.
On Thursday, she donned boxing gloves as she filed her candidacy, declaring herself ready to “fight the system once again” as she bids to “make Europe and Romania great again,” borrowing terms from US President Donald Trump.
Sosoaca has been accused of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and anti-Semitic views.
In July last year, she was expelled from the European Parliament in Strasbourg after loudly interrupting debates.
Her small party, S.O.S. Romania, won 24 seats after securing about 7 percent of votes in Romania’s legislative elections in December last year.
Romania has been plunged into chaos since Georgescu’s surprise emergence last year on the back of a huge TikTok social media campaign, which was marred by suspicions of Russian interference.
In a shock decision, the November election was cancelled and this week Georgescu was definitively excluded from the election, the first round of which is scheduled for May 4.