The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) rejected Călin Georgescu’s candidacy by applying two Constitutional Court Resolutions: no. 2 from October 2024 regarding the rejection of Diana Șoșoacă’s candidacy and no. 32 from December 6, 2024, canceling the elections.
The Șoșoacă Resolution establishes that every candidate must defend democracy from the moment of submitting their candidacy, an obligation to which the Constitutional Court granted legal status as a condition for candidacy.
Moreover, BEC states that Georgescu, "by not respecting the rules of the electoral procedure, has violated the very obligation (expressly provided in Constitutional Court Resolution no. 2 of October 5, 2024) to defend democracy, which is based precisely on correct, honest, and impartial suffrage, in accordance with the law, the absence of which alters the very foundation of the current constitutional order."
Therefore, BEC indicates that "by annulling the ongoing electoral process and ordering its full restart (including regarding the submission of candidacies) due to the candidate's conduct of non-compliance with essential electoral procedure regulations, crucial for democracy and the rule of law, the Constitutional Court implicitly and universally settled on the failure to meet the conditions required by law for the registration of the candidacy submitted by candidate Călin Georgescu, making it inadmissible for the same person to be considered eligible for the position of President of Romania upon the resumption of the electoral process."
Why does BEC assert that it did not leave the decision solely to the Constitutional Court this time?
"If the Central Electoral Bureau does not analyze the entire context of the candidacy, there is a risk that, without a subsequent mandate given to the Constitutional Court for this verification, a candidacy affected by fundamental deficiencies may be registered and go through the entire electoral process, only for the Constitutional Court to be put in a position to invalidate the suffrage results due to the manifest absence, pre-existing the submission of the candidacy, of a registration condition."
With this reasoning, embraced by all judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice within BEC, it closes any path for Călin Georgescu. He cannot successfully complain to the Constitutional Court that BEC applied Court resolutions. Attempting a new candidacy is futile as long as the rejection reasons are substantive, valid, I dare say, not only for these elections but for the rest of Mr. Georgescu's life.
The Wheel Turns
But those who currently rejoice in the invalidation of Călin Georgescu's candidacy should be prepared for the moment when this precedent will be used against them or a candidate they support.
Just as those who are now complaining should remember how they hailed all the abuses of the Constitutional Court in previous years as heroic, abuses whose general obligatory application they clamored for. The wheel has the bad habit of being round and turning.
What is happening now in Romanian democracy should not please anyone. We were caught between two abysses, one being the victory of a deranged individual dreaming of establishing a demented pro-Russian dictatorship and the other being the use of an undemocratic precedent to eliminate Diana Șoșoacă. We may have fallen, perhaps with relief, into one of them.
Let me be clear. Mr. Georgescu's candidacy was extremely toxic, based on manipulation, lies, violent and armed organizations, conspiracies with the East. Handing Romania over to this man would have been a disaster.
But the greatest tragedy is that we have reached this moment of collective hypnosis caused by the ineptitude and shamelessness of the political class, and that the mechanisms, the rational filters of the electorate, have not functioned. Both at the institutional level and at the level of the electorate, we have discovered ourselves completely devoid of an immune system.
It is good that the immediate lethal danger named Georgescu has been eliminated. I expect him to spend many years in prison for all the filth brought to light, but this was just a sad sanitary measure. The important thing was not to reach this point and it is essential not to reach it again, and for that, the rebuilding of institutions and the connection between the governed and the governors is the key.
In the Short Term, Several Immediate Questions Remain
1. How intense will the disturbances caused by the removal of Călin Georgescu be? What we saw on Sunday evening was not of great magnitude, except for the brief clash in the Old Town between protesters and gendarmes.
But it remains to be seen if there will be an organization that generates major and widespread violence. Let us not forget, however, the arsenal of assault found at Potra's home. Was he the only one? And what destabilization channels will Russia use, for which the current situation is ideal?
2. Who will at least partially take over Călin Georgescu's electoral base? One will certainly be Victor Ponta, who becomes a contender with real chances in the second round. If Simion fails to gather the required signatures, it will not be easy in the time remaining until the list closes. If he does, he will be accused of having a hidden agenda and being a traitor.
If it turns out that AUR did not actually have a Plan B, although Georgescu's rejection was foreseeable, if not at BEC, certainly at the Constitutional Court, it is possible that the party will enter major turbulence. Some recent statements by Claudiu Târziu already hint at this. Cristela Georgescu will be thrown into the battle, and how significant can the vote transfer be?
On the other side, we have candidates who validated themselves on the imperative idea of Georgescu, how will they reinvent themselves? They will all be forced to rethink their electoral offer.
I repeat, the mere fact that the immediate lethal danger has been eliminated does not mean that all is well and "business as usual." It means we are in a profound crisis, with democracy shattered, society polarized, institutions on the fringes, and a canyon of distrust between the electorate and the political class.
These are the major problems, Georgescu was just a beneficiary of them. If they persist, a new beneficiary is only a matter of time.