Simion and Anamaria Gavrilă, head of the far-right Party of Young People, announced on Wednesday that both would join the presidential race to support the “sovereignist movement.” Their decision follows Romania’s top court ruling, which upheld Calin Georgescu’s disqualification from this year’s election. However, the ruling does not necessarily prevent him from running in future elections. Simion and Gavrilă stated that if both receive approval to run, one will eventually withdraw.
Georgescu was the unexpected winner of November’s first-round presidential vote, but the Constitutional Court later annulled the results. The court cited concerns that Moscow had launched an “aggressive hybrid action” to influence the election outcome.
“We passed the [electoral bureau], now let’s see if we pass the [Constitutional Court] and return to democracy,” Simion wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, the electoral bureau rejected the candidacy of another far-right figure, Diana Șoșoacă. The MEP and leader of the ultra-nationalist S.O.S Romania party, who was also blocked from last year’s election, announced she would appeal the decision, according to a Digi24 report.
To qualify for the presidential race, candidates must collect at least 200,000 signatures. Simion claimed to have gathered 604,000 signatures and predicted that Gavrilă would also secure a “very high number.”
Simion had finished fourth in November’s annulled first round, behind Georgescu, liberal candidate Elena Lasconi, and center-left Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
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