Presidential Election in Romania: How the Authorities Are Trying to Avoid Vote Manipulation

A sense of déjà vu. Romanian voters are once again being called to the polls on Sunday, May 4, for the first round of the presidential election. A first round had already taken place on November 24, in which the far-right candidate, Calin Georgescu, came out on top, to everyone's surprise. But on December 6, two days before the second round, the Constitutional Court decided to annul the vote. This event, extremely rare within the European Union, plunged Romania into a political crisis , amid suspicions of Russian interference. Under threat of impeachment, the outgoing president, the liberal and pro-European Klaus Iohannis, announced his resignation on February 10.

The Romanian justice system took this difficult decision in particular because of a "coordinated guerrilla attack" on TikTok that served Calin Georgescu, according to Romanian secret service documents declassified by the presidency. Unknown to the general public, the man who presented himself as "an avenger sent by God" led an active campaign on the social network in just a few months . To the point of becoming popular enough to garner 22.94% of the vote in the first round and thus comfortably qualify for the second. The vote will therefore be replayed and, in the hope of preventing history from repeating itself, the authorities have installed safeguards.

To understand the measures put in place, we must look back at the events of November. Despite only receiving 1% of the vote in polls conducted four weeks before the election, Calin Georgescu came out on top in the first round. The candidate, a critic of both the European Union and NATO and opposed to any military aid to Ukraine, and his supporters relied on social media for his campaign. According to a report by Viginum (PDF) , the French organization that combats foreign digital interference, the authorities collected data that "reveals an aggressive promotional campaign, in violation of electoral legislation, and the exploitation of algorithms to accelerate Calin Georgescu's popularity."

TikTok is a particularly popular social media platform in Romania, with nearly 9 million users in a population of 19 million. The documents revealed that these maneuvers also targeted Meta Group's platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram . The plan was clear: flood social media, paying micro-influencers to talk about the election by promoting Romania's ideal candidate: a man presented as honest and upstanding. Most of the videos have since been removed by the app.

Under these videos, thousands of accounts posted comments referring to Calin Georgescu. "TikTok's algorithm likes engagement, so it pushed the videos up," Catherine Durandin, a historian specializing in Romania, told franceinfo . According to the Viginum report, TikTok recently claimed to have found more than " 27,199 inauthentic accounts targeting Romania to promote the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) party and 'to a lesser extent', candidate Calin Georgescu ." These accounts " posted comments rather than videos." TikTok says it moderated them between December 2024 and January 2025. This was not enough according to the European Commission, which announced on December 17 that it was launching an investigation against the Chinese platform . It criticizes TikTok for not having identified problematic content earlier , particularly in the context of an election campaign. Contacted by franceinfo for an update on the progress of the investigation, the European Commission declined to respond.

This TikTok offensive was coupled with a significant number of cyberattacks targeting computer systems linked to the electoral process. Declassified documents from the Romanian presidency state that some accounts involved in this operation "were previously involved in promoting pro-Russian, anti-NATO, and anti-Ukraine messages . " While suspicion quickly turned to Russia, both Calin Georgescu and Moscow have so far denied taking part in this online campaign. Today, the former far-right leader is facing legal proceedings and is barred from running in the presidential election . But despite this non-participation, Romania intends to protect itself from further interference.

On March 17, the country's interim president, Ilie Bolojan, convened a meeting with all representatives of the institutions responsible for organizing the elections. The objective was to assess the state of logistical preparations and ensure the implementation of electoral legislation, including online. Since then, the National Audiovisual Council (CNA), which focused on traditional media, has turned its attention to social networks. Since the official start of the new election campaign on March 4 at midnight, the audiovisual police have sanctioned several videos every day for " dangerous disinformation that affects public health, national security or the integrity of democratic processes" , the CNA details on its Facebook page.

"The Council is making a lot of these kinds of decisions. Before, it only focused on traditional TV channels, whereas the majority of disinformation is happening online today," observes Anatola Capelle-Pogacean, a historian and political scientist at the Center for International Research at Sciences Po. "The authority has taken the problem head on," she believes. Between March 1 and April 8, the National Audiovisual Council banned 56 pieces of content, most of them "targeting publications with political content or disinformation," reports the newspaper Europa Libera Romania . The CNA lists the content it has requested be removed, such as this video with the catchy title: " Calin Georgescu will be president of Romania! Listen carefully until the end." In a bid for transparency, the CNA publishes its decisions on Facebook every day.

In addition to these sanctions, the Romanian authorities are counting on the involvement of major platforms to limit the dissemination of such content. TikTok and Meta are collaborating with the Romanian authorities. "We organized a meeting with Romanian regulatory authorities and representatives of major platforms to consider several scenarios," says Madalina Botan, a researcher at the Bulgarian-Romanian Digital Media Observatory. "We had to think about how to act in the event of a disinformation campaign, for example," she explains. Since the content of the meeting has not been made public, she prefers to remain discreet about the outcome of these discussions.

Even though the platforms have committed to greater control, zero risk does not exist, warns Catherine Duradin. "No state is immune to an online campaign organized to promote a candidate," she explains. However, even in the event of an attempted interference, according to the researchers contacted by franceinfo, it is "unthinkable" that the second election would be canceled again. "Romanians need a president, there is a crisis of confidence among citizens in democracy ," judges Madalina Botan . In my opinion, the election could only be canceled if proven fraud took place in the polling stations."

For this new first round, therefore, four main candidates will compete. George Simion, 38, is leading the voting intentions. Leader of the far-right AUR party, he is a fan of Donald Trump, opposed to military aid to Ukraine, LGBT+ rights and a defender of a "sovereign Europe of nations" . He is followed by Nicusor Dan, 55, the current mayor of Bucharest, who is not affiliated with a party; Crin Antonescu, 65, who represents the pro-European Union government coalition; and Victor Ponta, 52, a former Prime Minister from the Democratic Party. Next comes Elena Lasconi, 52, president of the opposition Save Romania party, who finished second behind Calin Georgescu in the first round of the initial December election. Only two of them will qualify for the second round, scheduled for May 18.