'Romania first': Far-right election front-runner echoes Trump

by Fulya OZERKAN / Ani SANDU

Romania's far-right presidential front-runner Calin Georgescu has put his most controversial statements aside as he goes for a single slogan echoing Donald Trump before Sunday's run-off vote -- "Romania first".

"I am ultra pro-Trump. I think in the same way he does," said the 62-year-old, a past admirer of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, adding that he shares Trump's "pragmatism".

"Romania has to be first," Georgescu -- who has campaigned against aid for neighboring war-torn Ukraine -- told the news site Politico, "like how it was America first".

"It's about the vision... a vision for peace."

Since the rank outsider shocked Romania by winning the first round of presidential elections on November 24, he has dodged questions about his previous praise for Putin and his "Russian wisdom".

Whenever he is asked if he is pro-Russian, he insists he is "pro-Romanian".

"For me and my people, the most important is the partnership with America," he told Politico.

- Rivals 'cry Russia' -

Instead he has hammered home his nationalist programme as he avoided press conferences and critical questions before Sunday's face-off against Elena Lasconi, a centrist pro-European mayor.

While he does not want Romania to leave the European Union and NATO, he now says he wants to negotiate, "standing tall, not on our knees", for a better position within them.

In June, he described the Atlantic defense alliance as "the weakest on the face of the Earth". "Why stay in a club that offers no security to your country?" he said.

But in recent weeks, Georgescu seems to weigh his words carefully, anxious to unite, as journalists have started to flock around him.

"Like any candidate in the second round of presidential elections, he pivots and reframes where he senses attacks from opponents," political scientist Radu Magdin told AFP.

"Georgescu tries to play the Trump card, while opponents cry Russia," he added.

Like Trump, he advocates "peace" in Ukraine and opposes any military aid for Kyiv.

An agronomist, he also champions protectionism, promising to reverse dubious privatizations of the post-communist era.

Also like the US president-elect, he regularly relays disinformation on topics ranging from Covid-19 to climate change.

Georgescu, who also frequently evokes God, wrote the preface to the Romanian translation of the latest book by Trump's incoming health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy Jr. has attracted major controversy for his anti-vaccine activism and embrace of conspiracy theories.

- 'Magnetic' -

Georgescu began his career in 1992 in the environment ministry before joining the foreign ministry.

From there he was posted to represent Romania at UN organizations in Vienna and Geneva.

In the 2010s, he was tipped as a possible prime minister, but it was only a decade later that he started to appear more frequently in the public eye.

During the Covid pandemic, he became a vocal vaccine-critic, frequently spreading conspiracy-laden narratives.

Once linked to Romania's far-right AUR party, he was excluded for taking up positions deemed anti-Semitic and too radical.

AUR leader George Simion, who failed to advance in the first presidential round, has since thrown his support behind Georgescu in the run-off.

Romanian authorities alleged Georgescu was granted "preferential treatment" by TikTok in the run-up to the first round vote, with his videos viewed millions of times -- an accusation the social network has dismissed.

"It's not TikTok that went to vote, it was people," Georgescu countered.

Several voters told AFP they saw him as "a man of integrity, serious and patriotic" and a man of "family" values, capable of bringing change.

Experts also note he managed to tap into voter anger over rampant inflation and other economic woes.

"Everyone gets him and he seems magnetic," political analyst Magdin said, adding he talks with a deep voice like characters in old Romanian films.

Georgescu himself believes destiny is on his side, saying he "felt" a year and a half ago that he would become president.

© Agence France-Presse