The Georgescu – Potra file, discussed in the meeting of the European Political Community. Nicușor Dan: “I will present the material that the Attorney General has made public”
Nicușor Dan. Photo: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The elections in the Republic of Moldova, the problem of drugs and that of Russian misinformation and influences will be discussed today in the seventh European political community. During the discussions on misinformation and Russian influences, President Nicușor Dan will present the report made by the Attorney General Alex Florence about the actions of former candidate Călin Georgescu on the occasion of the presidential elections canceled in 2024.
- The European Political Community is a platform for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe, established in 2022. The group first met in October 2022, with participants from 45 European countries, as well as the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission.
“Today it will be a meeting of the European states in the EU and not only. A plenary assembly with several discussions, one on Moldova, one on drugs and one on misinformation and Russian infusion and in this discussion I will present the material that the general prosecutor made public,” explained Nicușor Dan.
He stressed that the most important part of the report to be discussed is the actions of the group on social networks, how they managed to make a clone site system and how it operated on Tiktok so that “#Calingeorge” is on a leading place in the world top.
The president stressed that this presentation in the meeting of the European Political Community, which begins at 11.00, takes place at the initiative of Romania.
What does the General Prosecutor's Report contains
Prosecutor General Alex Florencea told September 16, at Antena 3 CNN, that the Georgescu file represents “the worst case monitored in the last 35 years” and explained that Romania has been targeting a hybrid war, a much harder to identify than a classic conflict.
As for Horațiu Potra, the leader of the paramilitary group sent to court on Monday with Călin Georgescu, Florence said that “outside any doubt there are connections with the Russian Federation”, including correspondences in Russian and contacts at the diplomatic level.
“The defendant you have in the picture (Horaţiu Potra-no) is outside any doubt, is documented following the computer searches, with multiple trips to the Russian Federation, with CVs in Russian to be provided to the authorities there. Also, his meetings negotiated with the Russian Federation and the General's Ambassada. of Romania.
Prosecutor General: “The worst case monitored in Romania in the last 3 decades”. The investigation from the Georgescu file, of interest for prosecutors in Eastern Europe
20,000 accounts were activated on Tik-Tok before the first round of presidential elections
Florence was asked how great the infrastructure of this operation of support in the online environment of Călin Georgescu was when he ran for the presidential elections.
“Her total magnitude will probably never be discovered. Instead, think that only certain Facebook pages that we have monitored and we could prove to go through all this pattern, counting over 2000. The level of viralization instead increases exponentially with the number of hits,” Alex Florence said.
He explained that the messages were viralized and using a hashtag network.
“Behind each hashtag can be accessed a huge cumulation of information. And these hashtags are then run in this whole ecosystem and reach the time of users to access. From that moment the user does not only access a news. That message in different forms.
He added that Tik-Tok were activated only one day before the first round of the presidential elections 20,000 accounts.
“It is an analysis done by Tiktok itself, including at the request of the Romanian authorities in which they find a huge network of tiktok accounts, which were activated, 20,000 of these accounts one day before the first round. This network that contained practically some boots, that is an automated system running in just one day over two million comments that will be reached by this infrastructure. At a figure.
Călin Georgescu, sent to court with Horațiu Potra and 20 Mercenari
Previously during the day of Monday, Călin Georgescu, winner of the first round of the presidential elections of 2024, canceled on December 6 by the Constitutional Court, was sent to court by the General Prosecutor's Office for complicity in committing actions against the constitutional order and the communication of false information, in continuous form.
In the same file, Horațiu Potra was sent to court, for attempting to commit actions against the constitutional order, failure to comply with the regime of weapons and ammunition, non -observance of the regime of explosive materials, any operations with pyrotechnic articles performed without law and public instigation, together with 20 mercenaries.
