Călin Georgescu, whom the country's president says is Moscow's man, sneaks into the campaign for the Capital City Hall, after an investigation shows his connections with a Russian espionage network.
Călin Georgescu doesn't want to stay away or abandon his fans
The elections for the General City Hall are “a farce”, Călin Georgescu said today, explaining that he cannot be on the side of Ancă Alexandrescu, the creator of Realitatea Plus, who aggressively supported him from last year until today. “The free vote of the Romanians was stolen”, claims Georgescu, urging the people of Bucharest to boycott the election of December 7, 2025, but consoling Alexandrescu that she has the free will to participate in this race, in which he would like to stay away, but in which he is very present.
The AUR voted for Anca Alexandrescu, 53, to be the party's candidate for the Bucharest City Hall elections, although from the point of view of the head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, it would be a sacrifice. The producer of Realità Plus was the communication adviser of all PSD leaders from Adrian Năstase to Viorica Dăncilă, but George Simion believes that she is the only one who can upset the “games of the system”. Alexandrescu is ranked fourth in all the polls of the last few weeks with about 15% of the voting options. In first place is Ciprian Ciucu (PNL) the mayor of Sector 6 with 26%, followed by the mayor of secot 4, Daniel Băluță (PSD) with 24% and deputy Cătălin Drula (USR), with 16% of the votes.
But what tactics does Călin Georgescu have?
The former presidential candidate from last year does not want to stand aside nor abandon his fans. He expects a long and complicated trial that will keep him in the victim position until, possibly, he is saved by a friendly panel of judges or a serious political situation. Optimism is playing, even though there is mounting evidence against him that he was aided by the Russians, the Chinese, many reservists who worked in the field of national security, and even active duty officers in this area.
An investigation published by Captura.ro highlights the possible links he had with a Swiss financial company (Mercando Green Technology AG), which claimed to invest in technological research, but which in fact was connected to a group well organized by Moscow and accused by the federal prosecutors in Switzerland and Germany of supporting technological espionage and facilitating the transfer to the Army of the Russian Federation. The presence of Călin Georgescu in this gear is currently being investigated by Romanian prosecutors starting from a criminal complaint in which a local businessman accuses him of fraud, according to Captura.ro.
In any case, the televisions and the central press continue to popularize Călin Georgescu whenever he goes to the police to sign the judicial control or whenever he is called by the prosecutors, everywhere he has a procession of supporters. The video messages that he continues to give from the living room, in front of the icons, are replayed by all the news channels as if Georgescu were an important politician. It is true that he won the first round of last year's presidential elections, which was later annulled by the Constitutional Court following the documents provided by the Supreme Council of Defense of the Country (CSAT) which also showed Russia's involvement.
The Court specified that the electoral process “was flawed throughout”, “by multiple irregularities and violations of the electoral legislation” which distorted “the equal opportunities of the electoral competitors”. Public opinion is still not fully clarified according to sociological research: on a national level, 37% of Romanians believe that there is not enough evidence to send Georgescu to court for attempting to violate the constitutional order, 22% believe that there are enough arguments, and 37% do not know what to say (CURS, November 2025).
In the meantime, until the trials are completed, Călin Georgescu presents himself as a leader, gives verdicts, talks to his followers about morality and God, in short, keeps them hooked on the networks and on TV. It is not clear whether he still has open paths to Moscow, but he is probably still counting on support coming from within the institutions that are investigating him. He says he doesn't get involved in politics, but those who still believe in him know that Anca Alexandrescu was totally on his side, she did everything she could to increase his visibility and reduce his guilt.
Finally, some of the pro-Georgescu fundamentalists may vote for Alexandrescu, amid discontent with the ruling coalition, the lack of solutions and the economic crisis the country is sinking into. Nationalist radicals, who subsidiarily believe and talk about the Kremlin's favorite themes, have the support not only of innocent voters, but also of the mechanisms developed by Moscow to cultivate suspicion and discontent and to divide the electorate. Georgescu remains Russia's image agent, seconded (also) by Anca Alexandrescu.
Sabina Fati – DW
