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.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS