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(CN) — Călin Georgescu, a far-right former Romanian presidential candidate accused of receiving illicit political and financial help from Moscow, faces 20 years in prison on charges of attempting to stage a coup when his first-round election win was annulled this past December.
Romanian prosecutorsannounced charges Tuesday against Georgescu and 21 other individuals, including Horaţiu Potra, an ally of Georgescu who was a former French legionnaire and militia chief in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Potra has fled Romania and reportedly sought asylum in Russia.
On Wednesday, Georgescu denied any wrongdoing and lashed out against Romanian authorities, accusing them of “instrumentalizing” the legal system “like a bullet,” according to Romanianmedia accounts. He made his statement after appearing for a summons at prosecutors’ offices in Bucharest.
Georgescu, who is widely praised in European and American far-right circles and supported by allies of U.S. President Donald Trump, has become adeeply divisive figure after he unexpectedly won first-round presidential elections this past November with a message that fused ultranationalist, religious, antiestablishment and anti-Western rhetoric.
Relying almost exclusively on TikTok videos, Georgescu won 23% of the ballot, or about 2.1 million votes. He picked up huge support among disillusioned Romanians living in Western Europe, often doing poorly paid menial labor. Preelection polling missed his popularity, estimating he’d get under 10%.
Following his stunning victory, Georgescu, 63, appeared to be on track to win a final round against a little-known center-right small-town mayor from a minor party. Due to his pro-Russian views, a Georgescu victory was seen as a major threat to the interests of the European Union and NATO.
But four days before the runoff was to take place, then-Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified a Romanian Intelligence Service report that linked Georgescu’s sudden popularity to a “cyber guerilla warfare” by an unnamed outside “state actor.” Officials made it clear they believed Russia was behind the plot.
The declassified report said Russia-linked computers hit the election system more than 85,000 times in an operation lasting up to election night.
It also said “the massive and accelerated growth” of Georgescu’s support came about by “a very well-organized promotion campaign” by numerous users from various locations that earned him “preferential treatment on the TikTok platform.”
Meanwhile, Romanian journalists revealed Georgescu’s ties to Russian individuals and the far-right milieu in Romania, where people glorify the 1930s fascist Legionary Movement, also known as the Iron Guard.
On Dec. 6, the Friday before the Sunday runoff, the Constitutional Court annulled the entire presidential election, arguing the electoral process had been compromised.
Subsequently, Romanian officials accused Georgescu of treason and money laundering, barring him from running in a new round of presidential elections. Police also raided the homes of people linked to his campaign and made arrests.
The rerun presidential election was won by Nicuşor Dan, the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest.
On Tuesday, Dan said the prosecutors’ report was “proof” that Russia was behind a “systematic disinformation” campaign in Romania and had meddled in the 2024 election.
Georgescu and his supporters labeled the cancellation of the election a “coup d’etat” by a politically appointed court.
His case has garnered support from allies of Trump. On social media, Donald Trump Jr. jeered the court decision as a “another Soros/Marxist attempt at rigging the outcome & denying the will of the people.”
In a searing speech attacking European leaders at the Munich Security Conference in February, U.S. Vice President JD Vance called the cancellation of the election undemocratic.
Vance said the decision was “based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.”
Tuesday’s indictment stemmed from charges that Georgescu and Potra planned to carry out a raid on Bucharest on Dec. 8 and undermine the “constitutional order.”
Prosecutors described a plot where Georgescu and Potra met at a horse farm on Dec. 7 outside Bucharest to lay out plans to forcefully oppose the cancellation of the election. Investigators claimed Potra aimed to lead an armed paramilitary group to carry out “violent actions of a subversive nature.”
Calling it a coup attempt, prosecutors said the group’s goal was to foment unrest by turning peaceful demonstrations into violent antigovernment protests and thereby undermine the “constitutional order or to make it more difficult or prevent the exercise of state power.”
Investigators said police stopped Potra’s convoy of seven vehicles as it made its way to Bucharest in the early hours of Dec. 8.
No date has been set for Georgescu’s trial, but it could begin in early 2026. He faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, prosecutors said.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
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