“100%” sure that Moscow “directed” Călin Georgescu's campaign, Nicușor Dan criticizes the SRI: “They had the right picture, but they didn't see the mechanism”

“I can affirm 100% that the important part of Călin Georgescu's campaign was directed from Moscow”, said President Nicușor Dan, in an interview published on Tuesday by the Cotidianul website, in which he addressed the issue of the annulment of last year's presidential elections and the ongoing investigation of the prosecutor's office in this case.

“I would say there are two or three main components. So what we know, we know how social networks were influenced. That's what we know,” said the head of state, when asked how much he knows, from his position, about what happened in 2024 with the cancellation of the election.

“So we know how it was done. We know that for some of the threads, either on the fake accounts or the advertisers who paid for online advertising, who paid, we have proof that they are going to Russia. What we don't know, further, is who is the company that coordinated, that did the whole strategy. We don't know,” President Dan continued.

“And we also know extremely little about money flows. That is, less matters that are known to the public. Bogdan Peșchir and all that,” he also said in the interview.

Questioned about the facts presented publicly by the General Prosecutor's Office, Nicușor Dan specified: “No, this is known before the prosecutor's report, that is, it is known about 8-9 months ago. We do not know much about, because what we know, and again the general prosecutor told us, that things started with a sociological scan in 2019. Do we know the company that did it? We do not know who paid it and how much it cost.”

Other statements made by the head of state on the subject of the canceled elections:

• “We know that some of the threads go to the Kremlin, yes. We know more. That is, it is much more obvious in Moldova than in Romania. But for Romania there are, as I said, either accounts, networks of accounts that are there, or online advertising companies that are there. It is possible that during the elections in Romania he was, and somehow there are suspicions for a network of Romanians who were behind Călin Georgescu. Some information is more known, some is less known, some is only at this moment, only at the level of intuition.
• I can say 100% that the important part of Călin Georgescu's campaign was directed from Moscow.“

Former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu was sent to court, on September 16 this year, for six crimes, the most serious being complicity in attempting to commit actions against the constitutional order and communicating false information.

In the same file, Horațiu Potra was also sent to court, for attempted coup, along with 20 other mercenaries from his group.

Georgescu has been under judicial control since February 26, having several prohibitions, including leaving the country without the approval of the judicial authorities. He contested the measure extending his judicial review by another 60 days, but the court definitively rejected his request.

The first round of last November's presidential elections was annulled in an unprecedented decision by the Constitutional Court (CCR) on December 6.

“The freely expressed character of the vote was violated by the fact that the voters were misinformed by means of an electoral campaign in which one of the candidates benefited from an aggressive promotion”, it is stated in the reasoning of the CCR's decision to cancel the presidential election. CCR claimed that “the transparent and fair nature of the electoral campaign was affected and the legal regulations related to its financing were disregarded”.

In justifying its decision to cancel the presidential elections, the Constitutional Court also showed that the voters' freedom to form an opinion presupposes the right to obtain correct information about the candidates, so the interference of state or non-state entities in carrying out electoral propaganda or disinformation campaigns had to be excluded.

A direct criticism of the SRI

In the same interview, President Dan did not shy away from bringing a reproach to the SRI on this topic, after his adviser Ludovic Orban criticized, in the political show HotSpot, the Romanian Intelligence Service for the lack of action before the canceled presidential elections in 2024.

“He didn't see the factories of fake accounts, the pages built systemically over time that were later used as a support for messages against the constitutional order,” Orban said. He offered the example of the Republic of Moldova, which took concrete measures to stop external interference in elections. “Decisions have been made in Moldova. More than 100,000 fake accounts on Tiktok, televisions financed by the Russians, have been closed. People have been arrested. We found ourselves with a quasi-unknown opponent who wins the first round of the presidential elections,” said the new presidential adviser on domestic politics, on HotSpot, on October 14.

The head of state was asked precisely about this statement of Orban.

“A very pertinent question. The answer is that, broadly speaking, this network was known. I mean, that's the job of an intelligence service. From terrorism to the constitutional order to see what the potential dangers and potential networks are. And, in this way, they follow different people. That's their job,” said Nicușor Dan.

Asked if “it was the SRI's job” to know and act in this case, the head of state answered: “To a large extent, yes. And they have the correct picture, in my opinion, of these networks. What they didn't see, they didn't see the technical mechanism that made the voting intention for Călin Georgescu jump from 3%, as they expected and as we all expected, to 23%. That's what they didn't see.”

“You realize. I talked to a foreign diplomat at one point, even in the first weeks of my mandate, and I raised this doubt with him. He told me: we haven't seen it either,” he also declared, when asked about “who is still paying for this negligence in the service.”

The head of state added that someone, even from the SRI, who made a mistake, will answer for this, “when we see the report”.

“I tried, I asked this question and I gave you an answer that, in my opinion, is balanced, reasonable. In the sense that they did a lot of what they were used to doing, to have a real picture of the networks, without having a picture of this technological mechanism that was absolutely new for everyone. I mean, it was not seen, for example, in the elections in Moldova last year,” the president stated.