Aside from maybe associating it with Transylvania and Dracula, most Americans know that Romania is somewhere in eastern Europe and not much else. One of the events of the already-cluttered record of the Trump 2.0 regime was Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech to the Munich Conference in February, thanks to which we now have a whole new round of uses of the Munich Analogy, which lives on as a sort of inextricable ankle bracelet around Western foreign policy discussions. The tacit endorsement by Vance of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in this year’s German parliamentary election appears to have drawn more attention in the reporting I’ve seen than the Romanian part.
Our Opus Dei-adherent Vice President told the conference:
[T]he threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values—values shared with the United States of America.Le Monde gives this background to Vance’s cheap propaganda claim, which (surprise! surprise!) has an Elon Musk connection:
Now, I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany, too. [my emphasis] (1)
The American vice president was referring to a comment by French former European Commissioner Thierry Breton. Breton, speaking on the radio station RMC was reacting to a discussion between Alice Weider, the head of Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) party, and Elon Musk, held on X, on January 9. Breton pointed out that the platform's owner had "the right to say what he wants," but not on social media platforms. Indeed, these platforms, as long as they are made available in Europe, are subject to the European Digital Services Act (DSA) regulation, which requires digital platforms to monitor speech and content on them, notably to prevent misinformation or illegal content.Călin Georgescu was the far-rightist, Putinist-oriented ultranationalist candidate which Vance and Musk were defending there. He did win the first round of Presidential elections last November. But because he had been found to have violated electoral laws, the second round of the election was cancelled, and a new election scheduled for this May. The Romanian Constitutional Court has excluded Georgescu from the May election but also ruled that this would not restrict him from participating in a future Presidential election. (2)
Urging the EU and its member states to enforce their laws on online content, Breton then said the following sentence: "Let's apply our laws, in Europe, when they risk being circumvented and can, if not applied, lead to interference. We've done it in Romania, we'll obviously have to do it, if necessary, in Germany." At the time, the sentence was taken out of context and widely shared on social media. Some saw it as an admission that Europe had annulled the elections in Romania, and that it might do the same in Germany. As reported by Libération, this claim was echoed by Musk himself, who portrayed Breton as the "tyrant of Europe." The former commissioner's response to the billionaire was that the EU has no power to cancel any election in its member states. [my emphasis]
Musk is angry at the EU for making regulations requiring content moderation on social media platforms:
Romania has become ground zero in a global struggle over how speech is regulated online. Its top constitutional court in December canceled the win of ultranationalist Călin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential election after security services warned Russia was mounting “aggressive” hybrid attacks on social media. Georgescu has been barred from running in the do-over election scheduled for May.Edmond Jäger in an analysis of the election-annulment situation notes that the Romanian Constitutional Court’s authority to annul the election in those circumstances was not entirely clear. But he also describes the pattern of online promotional activity to boost Georgescu’s candidacy and argues that those did constitute illegal campaign donations. (4)
ANCOM oversees the Digital Services Act in Romania, the European Union's social media rulebook that governs how platforms like TikTok and X moderate online speech.
"We’ve never seen something like” what happened in the November 2024 presidential election, Popescu said. (3)
The EU’s anti-disinformation platform EU vs. Disinformation can be frustratingly vague in its reporting. But this general description on the Romanian election situation seems plausible:
The Kremlin’s disinformation machine has also set its sights on Romania, fabricating an upside down world where the EU supposedly controls Romania’s judicial system like puppet masters.Edmund Jäger would presumably not consider the decision to have been so obviously “straightforward.”
Pro-Kremlin outlets have frantically spread baseless claims that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen personally orchestrated the prosecution of the former presidential candidate Calin Georgescu and even threatened to restrict Romania’s EU funding unless he was removed from the electoral process.
These feverish conspiracy theories, fuelled by Russia’s notoriously unreliable Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), lack any connection to reality. The real situation is far more mundane: the Romanian authorities charged Georgescu with multiple criminal counts(opens in a new tab) including promoting fascist organisations and election finance violations, following their own legal procedures and finally putting a full stop on Georgescu’s presidential bid(opens in a new tab).
Unsurprisingly, pro-Kremlin disinformation has framed this straightforward legal process as ‘EU tyranny‘, portraying Romania as a helpless victim of ‘Brussels despotism’. This manufactured narrative serves Moscow’s broader strategy of undermining trust in democratic institutions while positioning pro-Kremlin candidates as ‘popular victims’ of Western persecution. (5)
Euronews summarized the situation this way:
Dubbed the "TikTok Messiah," Georgescu came out on top in the first round of Romania's presidential elections in December.Georgescu is not a nice guy. But his was good enough for the far-right propaganda outlets supporting him and another rightwing candidate:
However, the country's constitutional court annulled the vote following the declassification of intelligence reports showing Russian involvement in influencing voters through social media to support the then-relatively unknown candidate.
Georgescu is also facing criminal proceedings including anticonstitutional acts and misreporting his campaign finances.
The charges also revolve around his support for sympathisers of the Iron Guard, a pre-World War II fascist and antisemitic movement and political party, which is illegal under Romanian law. [my emphasis] (6)
Along with TikTok, actors also coordinated on Facebook to support Georgescu and AUR candidate George Simion. The Finnish cyber research firm Check First has detailed in a report how a large network supported the two right-wing radical candidates. A few accounts also acted as clients as well as suppliers of commercials. In addition, a lot of content was copied one-to-one from the same accounts across different media. In doing so, they did not leave out any relevant medium: In addition to TikTok, the same content can be found on Telegram and Facebook, on websites and on television. Unlike Tik-Tok and Facebook, the websites and the TV station in question can be associated with Russia. The station, for example, is owned by the Moldovan oligarch Ilan Sor, who repeatedly organizes political campaigns in the Republic of Moldova on behalf of Russia. The websites, in turn, belong to a network that disseminates Russian government propaganda in various languages under the name "Pravda". [Jäger; my emphasis]The media environment continues to evolve, and so do the challenges in detecting such efforts by foreign governments to illegally and illegitimately interfere with elections.
Vladimir Bortun observed in December that the election ironically also reflected the general deference to the US in Romanian politics, noting that after the Court’s decision:
Surprisingly, both Georgescu and the pro-Western candidate who had made it into the second round, Elena Lasconi from the neoliberal Save Romania Union (USR), criticized the decision. So did Donald Trump Jr, who deplored this “[George] Soros/Marxist attempt at rigging the outcome and denying the will of the people.” This compelled both candidates to write to his dad and argue their case, like schoolchildren in front of the headmaster. Lasconi — ostensibly the candidate defending democracy, the rule of law, and all the rest — started by praising Trump “for the great things you have done, and will continue to do, to put America first and for your continuous fight for the American people.” Georgescu went as far as suggesting that this is in fact a plot to drag NATO into the war in Ukraine and thereby block Trump’s investiture in January. His characterization of Trump echoed the old Wallachian delegations kowtowing to the sultan: “They want to stop the Peace-Maker Donald Trump from keeping world peace.” [my emphasis] (7)To get back to Dracula, Romanian authorities earlier this month arrested six people for treason:
Investigators say the group established contacts with foreign agents in Romania and Russia and “took steps to negotiate with external political-military actors regarding Romania’s withdrawal from NATO”.How long before JD Vance starts telling us what a noble guy Vlad the Impaler was?
They also allegedly sought to overthrow the constitutional order, dissolve political parties, install a new government, adopt a new constitution and change the country’s name, flag, and national anthem.
Some of the suspects allegedly made repeated contact with foreign agents, both within Romania and Russia. ...
Among those detained was 101-year-old Radu Theodoru, a retired general, who has a long history of promoting anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial.
According to prosecutors, Theodoru was the honorary leader of an organisation known as the Vlad Tepes Command Centre, which describes itself as a structured military entity. Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler, in English) was a medieval ruler notorious for his brutality and served as an inspiration for the Dracula legend. Some in Romania regard him as a symbol of strong leadership and radical justice. [my emphasis] (8)
Vlad Ţepeş (1456-1462)
(1) Bernard, Philippe, et al (2025): Behind the words of JD Vance's historic Munich speech. Le Monde 02/21/2025. <https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/02/21/behind-the-words-of-jd-vance-s-historic-munich-speech_6738424_23.html> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(2) Parzkava, Dato (2025): Georgescu free to try his luck in other presidential elections, Romanian court says. Politico 03/14/2025. <https://www.politico.eu/article/calin-georgescu-romania-elections-romanian-constitutional-court/> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(3) Garito, Eliza (2025): Romanian media watchdog defies Musk over censorship claims. Politico 03/24/2025. <https://www.politico.eu/article/romanian-social-media-watchdog-defies-elon-musk-censorship-speech-claims/> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(4) Jäger, Edmond (2025): Mit TikTok zur Wahlmanipulation. Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 3/2025, 29-32. Translations from the German are mine.
(5) EU vs. Disinformation. The old deceiver 03/20/2025. <https://euvsdisinfo.eu/the-old-deceiver/> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(6) Brazar, Aleksander (2025): Romanian constitutional court unanimously rejects Calin Georgescu's candidacy, sparking protests. Euronews 03/11/2025. <https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/11/romanian-constitutional-court-unanimously-rejects-calin-georgescus-candidacy-sparking-prot> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(7) Bortun, Vladimir (2025): Romania’s Election Isn’t Just About Geopolitics. Jacobin 12/12/2024. <https://jacobin.com/2024/12/romania-election-nationalism-neoliberalism-georgescu> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
(8) Chiriac, Marian (2025): Romania Detains Six for Alleged Treason, Ties to Russia. Balkan Insight 03/06/2025. <https://balkaninsight.com/2025/03/06/romania-detains-six-for-alleged-treason-ties-to-russia/> (Accessed: 2025-25-03).
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