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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS