'Disillusioned Romanian voters have turned to the fringes', analyst says as far-right populist enters runoff

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00:00Romania's pro-European Prime Minister Marcel Cilacu said this Monday he won't challenge

00:07the narrow result that showed him eliminated from the country's presidential election,

00:12announcing his resignation as party leader.

00:15Cilacu came third, with just over 19 percent in Sunday's election.

00:19The pro-Russian candidate, Kalin Djorgescu, topped in the poll at nearly 23 percent, and

00:24from the center-right, Elena Lascuni, second in just over 19 percent.

00:29Let's get the analysis.

00:30We're joined by Onana Popescu.

00:32She is the director of the Global Focus Center, which is a think tank in Bucharest.

00:37So, Onana, thank you very much for being with us.

00:40It's a pleasure to see you.

00:42How do you interpret the results?

00:44Well, I think it's a massive protest vote on the part of the population to a political

00:51class that they've been disillusioned with for a long time.

00:55So I think what we're seeing is an anti-establishment wave sweeping through the main parties.

01:01And also, I think we can add to that the fact that we've been having this grand coalition

01:07between the two main centrist parties, the Social Democrats and the Liberals.

01:12So there's been very little differentiation, so that people felt they were underrepresented

01:19in terms of having agency on the government agenda.

01:24And so they turned to the fringes.

01:27So Onana, this reflects the will of the people.

01:31What's the Russian influence?

01:33Georgescu denies that any has taken place.

01:36How do you interpret things?

01:38Well, that's a very good question.

01:41And it's still a it's still a work in progress because nothing can explain in sociological

01:46terms the fact that just two weeks ago, he was somewhere around one percent, then five

01:51percent, then a maximum of eight, 10 percent.

01:54That's where the opinion polls were measuring him, far from the 22 percent he eventually

02:01came to get. So this could be TikTok.

02:04And in itself, this is a new era that we're entering where you can actually be the

02:11underdog, just come out of the blue, use one social media network to campaign, the most

02:18untransparent one, and almost become president.

02:23But on top of that, it doesn't look like this like this was organic.

02:27And there are lots of questions as to who funded this, who masterminded this.

02:33And it's a modus operandi that we've been seeing in Moldova.

02:36We've been seeing it in Georgia, in Bulgaria, in Slovakia, everywhere in the region.

02:41And it's the Russian modus operandi.

02:43And since he's an explicit Russian sympathiser, there are lots of question marks to be

02:51investigated in the coming days and weeks.

02:53Indeed, we heard him earlier saying that he's not, as you've just described him, and I'm

02:57not saying that you're wrong, but I'm just trying to balance it and sort of obviously

03:01give his side of things.

03:02He says that he represents Romania.

03:04He's only interested in Romania and that's it.

03:06And there's no influence from outside.

03:07That's what he says. He's a man without a party, isn't he?

03:11He's got no party, no structure behind him.

03:12So I think what you're saying kind of points to a certain amount of support from

03:17somewhere else.

03:19Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, he has backtracked on some of his previous statements.

03:25He's a friend of Dugin's.

03:28He expressed his admiration for Vladimir Putin and for Russia as a model.

03:34But then since that doesn't usually play out well with the Romanian electorate, he has

03:39walked back some of those statements in the meantime.

03:42But at this point, we don't even know where his campaign headquarters are, if any.

03:48We don't know of any volunteers.

03:50We don't know where his finances come from.

03:54We know nothing.

03:55Even today, his statement was released on YouTube.

03:59So he stays very much away from open confrontation.

04:04So nobody's been able to even ask him these questions.

04:08Nathan, speaking to you, and thank you for filling us in on the finer detail of this

04:12result, which, as you say, seems to come out of nowhere.

04:15But as always, when you look between the lines and study behind the scenes, you see

04:19certain patterns developing.

04:21Onana Popescu of the Global Focus Centre, a think tank based in Bucharest.

04:25Thank you very much for joining us.

04:27We await the second.

04:28Thank you again.

04:29We await the second round of the Romanian election on December the 8th, with Karolina

04:34Georgiescu currently leading.

04:37He will be up against Elena Lascone of the centre-right.

04:40We'll be watching for developments, too.

04:42And once again, thanks to Onana Popescu.

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