AUR and Călin Georgescu talk again about the suspension of Nicușor Dan, fueling the feeling of mistrust in pro-European politicians. The president's solutions to the crisis are limited.
Pro-Georgescu protest in 2025
On his way to the court that judges him for the public promotion of legionary ideas in a continuous form, Călin Georgescu, increasingly confident in himself, yesterday asked the parliamentarians with “love of country” to start the procedure of suspending President Nicușor Dan from office on the grounds that he designated Eugen Tomac as prime minister in an “abusive” and “defiant” manner.
Călin Georgescu (64 years old), winner of the first round of the presidential elections on November 24, 2024, later annulled by the Constitutional Court, is accused in three criminal cases in which justice moves slowly:
(1) in the first file he is accused of apologizing for legionnaires and citing Zelea Codreanu, the leader of the Iron Guard, a nationalist, anti-Semitic and criminal organization from the interwar period. There are at least 5 pieces of evidence in which, in televised broadcasts, Georgescu referred to the ideas and characters of the local fascist movement. The legal penalty is between 3 months and 3 years in prison plus the prohibition of certain rights, but the court can be lenient, as has happened in other cases. Georgescu's lawyers try to get rid of him rather on procedural grounds and small inconsistencies in the compilation of the file by the prosecutors;
(2) in the second file he is accused of actions against the constitutional order, more precisely of attempted coup, communication of false information, use of violence to destabilize the country together with Horațiu Potra and the 20 people around him. According to the indictment, their actions endangered national security and constitutional order. Georgescu would risk 20 years in prison in this case for complicity in the coup attempt. If, however, the judges do not consider that he was related to the violent plan, then he can escape. The case is still early and there are no signs that the judges want to rush things;
(3) his 2024 campaign finance file contains allegations of election fraud and money laundering, but prosecutors have yet to indict him.
Polls: Confidence in Georgescu started to grow after the cancellation of the presidential elections
If President Nicușor Dan had completed the report on the 2024 presidential elections together with the secret services, perhaps the prosecutors would have had more evidence against Călin Georgescu at hand, especially since the analysis of the French Vigilance and Protection Service against Foreign Digital Interference, VIGINUM, emphasizes that the 2024 Romanian elections were disrupted by large-scale sophisticated interference and notes the involvement of a foreign actor: Russia. However, the evidence directly linking Călin Georgescu to Russia is slow to appear, despite the unraveling of the complicated algorithms with the help of which he became the voters' favorite in the first round of the canceled presidential elections.
In fact, only after the cancellation of the presidential elections in December 2024, confidence in Georgescu began to grow. Last month, Georgescu topped the ranking of popular trust in politicians with 32%, followed by Nicușor Dan with 31%, Ilie Bolojan with 25% and George Simion with 23% (CURS, May 2026). The voting intention, last year, before he was excluded by the Constitutional Court from the list of presidential candidates, was between 37% (CURS, January 2025) and 45% (Sociopol, February 2025), probably with a chance of winning.
The lawsuits help Georgescu to play the role of the victim
The arduous processes in which Georgescu is being investigated help him to play the role of the victim and appear periodically to remind those dissatisfied with the economic and political crisis that, if he had been in Cotroceni, he believes he would have known how to avoid it. Keeping Călin Georgescu in this uncertain legal zone makes his supporters stay alert, harbor their grievances and hope that their leader will return on his white horse to the top of domestic politics. In parallel, George Simion, who is losing speed, is doing polls on Facebook about the suspension of the president, Diana Şoșoacă claims that she has lists of 400,000 voters who would have signed for the suspension of Nicușor Dan and that she also has a list of over 155 parliamentarians who would be ready to trigger the parliamentary procedure against the head of state. All against the background of the political impasse in which the traditional parties have reached, which no longer have any way of reconciliation. One solution would be early elections, but there is a fear that AUR would win with a large score, PSD would enter with an even lower score, and the political equation could be much more dramatic. Călin Georgescu also wants to find a solution to return and seems to hope that the nationalist-radical vein in the judiciary will help him to rehabilitate.
Who helps Georgescu stay in the books?
Justice that trains his files? President Nicușor Dan, because more than a year after he was in Cotroceni, he failed to show us a clear report on what happened in the elections of November 24, 2024? Or that he did not change the heads of the secret services, so that each sent conclusions about how it was possible to slip under their radar cyber games in favor of Georgescu? PSD, PNL, USR, because they failed to have a coherent government? PSD for blowing up the country with the help of AUR?
Sabina Fati – DW
