EU and NATO do not interfere in Romanian and German elections
The presidential elections in Romania were not cancelled by NATO and the EU as falsely claimed in the post, but rather by the Constitutional Court of Romania. The reasons cited by the Constitutional Court of Romania for the annulment of the first round of the presidential elections in the country where the candidates were the far-right Călin Georgescu and the liberal Elena Lasconi, are electoral irregularities that require a complete reset of the elections. In the upcoming elections in Germany, however, the front-runner Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is a supporter of Ukraine’s right to self-defense
The presidential elections in Romania were not cancelled by NATO and the EU as falsely claimed in the post, but rather by the Constitutional Court of Romania. The reasons cited by the Constitutional Court of Romania for the annulment of the first round of the presidential elections in the country where the candidates were the far-right Călin Georgescu and the liberal Elena Lasconi, are electoral irregularities that require a complete reset of the elections. In the upcoming elections in Germany, however, the front-runner Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is a supporter of Ukraine’s right to self-defense
We analyze a Facebook post which shares video material and says:
EU democracy is over!They canceled the elections there (Romania) because the guy who was supposed to win them wanted to end the war with Ukraine. He didn’t want Romania to be a NATO camp. He wanted to keep the resources of Romania for the Romanian people, not for the multinational corporations. If it begins to look like the centrists are going to lose in Germany, they may very well try the same thing there, if they get the result they don’t like.
The presidential elections in Romania were not cancelled by NATO and the EU as falsely claimed in the post, but rather by the Constitutional Court of Romania. The reasons cited by the Constitutional Court of Romania for the annulment of the first round of the presidential elections in the country where the candidates were the far-right Călin Georgescu and the liberal Elena Lasconi, are electoral irregularities that require a complete reset of the elections.
“In accordance with Article 146(f) of the Constitution, the entire electoral process for electing the President of Romania is annulled,” stated the court’s official communiqué.
The cancellation comes amid legal disputes over the elections’ fairness, with various petitions submitted to the court before the runoff, writes Euractiv.
Călin Georgescu, a far-right candidate with pro-Russian sympathies, has faced allegations that his candidacy benefitted from disinformation campaigns and coordinated promotion on TikTok during the first round of the presidential elections. Romanian authorities have called for an investigation into the role of TikTok in amplifying his message, raising concerns about foreign interference and social media’s influence on democratic processes. Moscow denied interfering with Romania’s elections.
As BBC reported, Romania’s constitutional court cancelled the election in December after Iohannis declassified intelligence documents suggesting that almost 800 TikTok accounts created by a “foreign state” in 2016 were suddenly activated a month before the election, backing Calin Georgescu, an almost unknown far-right Nato-sceptic who has previously praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Romanian foreign intelligence said Russia was the “enemy state” involved, while domestic intelligence put Georgescu’s sudden surge in popularity down to a “highly organised” and “guerilla” social media campaign, writes BBC.
Călin Georgescu, a presidential candidate in the May elections, is a polarizing figure in Romania. His anti-globalist, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is also complemented by NATO and EU skepticism, criticism of Romania’s role in the war in Ukraine, while advocating for close ties with Russia. His campaign had a very effective social media strategy.
The annulment of the elections was not due to Georgescu’s views, but due to suspicions of electoral irregularities expressed through a decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania, and not of the EU or NATO. Democracy in the EU and NATO has not been “cancelled,” but as long as conditions are provided for fair elections without irregularities or suspicions of irregularities, without examining how social networks with accounts created by a foreign state influenced the elections, democratic processes would be compromised.
In the upcoming elections scheduled for May, new rules will be in effect—campaign materials must be clearly labeled as election content, with their sponsors explicitly identified. Additionally, social networks will be required to remove any content that violates these regulations within five hours of a request from the Romanian Electoral Commission. Failure to comply could result in fines ranging from 1 to 5 percent of the platform’s revenue.
In the part of the post and the speech in the video where it says “If it begins to look like the centrists are going to lose in Germany, they may very well try the same thing there,” this is a prediction, but it’s not based on evidence.
So far, the situation suggests that Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is the frontrunner in the German elections scheduled for February 23.
The latest opinion polls show the CDU leading with 30%, representing a significant lead of 10 percentage points ahead over the AfD in second place. Merz himself is also the country’s preferred chancellor, according to surveys, leading comfortably with 32%.
Current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his main opponent in the upcoming election, Friedrich Merz, agreed during a television debate on February 9 that Berlin must continue to support Ukraine and that the war in Russia must end as soon as possible.
During the debate, Merz said the war “could have ended sooner if Ukraine had been supported more decisively and with less hesitation,” reiterating his earlier position that Germany should provide Kyiv with long-range Taurus missiles.
So both Scholz and Merz are supporters of Ukraine’s right to self-defense.
Taking all of this into account, we assess the post as untrue.
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