What Comes Next After The (Allegedly Fraudulent) Liberal-Globalist Victory In Romania?

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

The battle was lost but the political war isn’t over…

The struggle between liberal-globalists and populist-nationalists in Romania ended in the former’s favor after Sunday’s presidential run-off election, which was preceded by the authorities controversially annulling the first round in early December on the false pretext that the frontrunner was Russian-backed. Calin Georgescu was ultimately barred from running again and instead appointed his ally George Simion in his place, who came out on top in early May’s first-round re-do, only to lose the second round.

Simion alleged that the Moldovan government was rallying the diaspora there against him and also claimed that other friendlier diasporas’ polling stations didn’t have enough ballots. Traditional fraud like ballot-stuffing was also suspected by some. 

Meanwhile, Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed that he rejected the French intelligence chief’s request to ban conservative Romanian accounts, thus showing the international stakes in this election. 

A few words will now be shared about the geostrategic context.

It was assessed before December’s now-annulled first round that “The Outcome Of Romania’s Presidential Election Could Spoil The US’ Potential Escalation Plans” of using Romania as a launchpad for any conventional European intervention in Ukraine.

France, the country that’s most loudly called for the aforesaid scenario, has a military base in Romania and signed a defense pact with neighboring Moldova last year. This positions France to swiftly make a move on nearby Odessa if the decision is ever made.

Completely unfounded allegations are circulating on Telegram and Twitter regarding alleged French interference in the Romanian presidential election.

France categorically rejects these allegations and calls on everyone to exercise responsibility and respect for Romanian… pic.twitter.com/PxFO7KnzDm

— France Diplomacy (@francediplo_EN) May 18, 2025

The only way to prevent that would be for populist-nationalists to come to power and either kick out French troops or ensure that measures are in place to stop them from unilaterally using Romanian soil for conventional military operations in Ukraine. Likewise, the only way to retain the viability of this scenario is to keep populist-nationalists out of power, ergo the alleged fraud against Simion. 

The significance of Sunday’s election was therefore that it keeps this possibility open even if it’s never used.

If there’s any silver lining to their loss, populist-nationalists could take partial consolation in the fact that they unprecedentedly galvanized their supporters during the election, and this mobilization of civil society could remain in place to expose the liberal-globalists’ corruption and organize peaceful protests. They could also attempt to raise maximum awareness of the abovementioned scenario of France using Romania as a launchpad for conventionally intervening in Ukraine with all that could dangerously entail.

To that end, more investigative journalism will be key, as will circulating their findings through the global network of friends that they built over the past half-year.

Populist-nationalists in the US and across Europe are enraged at the injustice that the liberal-globalists committed against Georgescu, with even Vance mentioning it during his famous speech in February at the Munich Security Conference, so they can count on them to inform the world if France takes any steps to use Romania as a military launchpad.

That’s what comes next after the liberal-globalists’ (allegedly fraudulent) victory in Romania, namely strengthening the populist-nationalist movement in ways that hold the new authorities accountable for everything that they do, including exposing possibly forthcoming French military plans vis-à-vis Ukraine. 

The battle was lost but the political war isn’t over, and Simion’s impressive second-round showing in spite of alleged fraud proves that populist-nationalism has finally gone mainstream in Romania.