Declassified Romanian intelligence suggests 'state actor' behind Georgescu's campaign

Five secret reports from different Romanian institutions and agencies have been made public by the country's president upon their request.

Transcript

00:00The Romanian political scene in battle's second round of the presidential elections

00:04have been thrown in disarray by the Romanian presidency decision to unseal the intelligence

00:10agency's report indicating a foreign interference in the elections in favor of far-right candidate

00:17Kalin Georgescu. Romania's foreign intelligence service states in the released documents that

00:24Romania is the target of aggressive hybrid actions by the Russian Federation. The dramatic

00:30move by the Romanian state to release the National Security Council's secret documents

00:36showed that major sums of money together with an elaborate foreign operation on social media

00:42influencing lead to the unexplained rise of the obscure extremist candidate Kalin Georgescu.

00:49The secret documents from three Romanian intelligence agencies details that 797 TikTok

00:56accounts created in 2016 for Georgescu and left dormant were activated to maximum capacity two

01:05weeks before the elections. Telegram accounts created in 2022 coordinated the TikTok and

01:13offer operations in favor of Kalin Georgescu who called himself an independent candidate

01:19with zero campaign spending. The documents which list a wide array of show that 1 million euros

01:26were mobilized by foreign state actors to drive Georgescu's campaign and the TikTok LHD confirmed

01:34that it received over 300,000 euros from Kalin Georgescu campaign. But Georgescu always maintained

01:42that he did not spend one euro for his campaign which opens the door to allegation and investigation

01:50of illegal campaign financing. The major question following now is the fate of the second round of

01:57the presidential elections the light of these revelations. For Euronews, Andrea Gourban.