Romanian politician arrested: Right-wing extremist Putin friend
According to Romanian media reports, he was taken to the Attorney General's Office to be questioned as a suspect on charges including public incitement, founding a fascist organization and making false statements about the sources of funding for the election campaign.
Georgescu won the first round of the presidential election in Romania in November. As an independent candidate, he surprisingly prevailed, even against the head of the far-right AUR party, George Simion. In the runoff election, he was supposed to compete against the neoliberal Elena Lasconi. But then the Romanian Constitutional Court decided to annul the election . According to the court, the election was massively influenced by Russia with the help of bots. The presidential election is to be repeated in May.
Georgescu is not only considered a supporter of conspiracy theories, but also pro-Russian and wants to stop military aid to Ukraine.
Shortly before the arrest, the police carried out dozens of house searches of Georgescu's supporters across the country, reported the Attorney General's Office in Bucharest. These were also said to have involved campaign financing and right-wing extremist propaganda.
In addition to Georgescu, 27 people are being investigated, probably employees of Horatiu Potra, the leader of the Romanian mercenaries in the Congo . They are suspected of financially supporting Georgescu's campaign and "of having founded an organization with a fascist, racist or xenophobic character."
Georgescu's positions are also close to those of US President Donald Trump and his deputies JD Vance and Elon Musk. They had criticized the court for annulling the election. In his controversial speech at the Munich Security Conference, JD Vance had cited Romania as one of the supposed examples of a democracy under threat. Outrage from Trump circles about the arrest followed immediately. "A disgrace," Musk commented on X.
taz
