Kenneth Schmidt argues that Romania’s democracy died on March 9th when the Election Commission barred nationalist Călin Georgescu from the presidential rerun, risking civil war and exposing Europe’s authoritarianism.

One could say that representative government in Romania died yesterday (March 9th), when the Election Commission of that country forbade nationalist Călin Georgescu to participate in the rerun of the presidential election. Mr. Georgescu won the first round of the presidential contest held on November 24th, 2024, quite handily. On December 6th, the Romanian Constitutional Court, citing vague information from intelligence agencies, annulled the election and set a rerun for May 4th, 2025. Georgescu was subsequently detained by law enforcement, told that criminal charges were being filed against him, and then released.

Writing on X, Georgescu said that the election commission’s action “was a direct blow to the heart of democracy worldwide! Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!” I find it hard to disagree with him. I always thought that Germany would become the first neo-liberal open dictatorship because of the zeal the establishment in that country has for suppressing free speech and the seemingly firm intent of officials there to make Alternative for Germany (AfD), the second largest party in the country, illegal. However, Romania beat them to the punch.

The Romanian political establishment is taking a terrible risk and their move threatens the stability of that country. If Georgescu was some obscure figure representing a small political party with single-digit poll numbers, the story would be relegated to the back of Europe’s great newspapers and the whole affair could be downplayed and covered up. He won the first round before it was annulled by a large margin. A recent public opinion poll had him 18 points above his nearest competitor. The government, by denying such a popular figure his right to run, is courting chaos and disorder, perhaps even civil war. Demonstrators gathered outside the headquarters of the Election Commission. People threw paving stones at the riot police and set some small fires.

If widespread disorder does break out, it is important to note that little Romania has no less than five spy agencies and has a reputation for having more intelligence operatives than even many of the larger European countries. I’m curious how the US government is going to react to these events. Both Vice President Vance and Elon Musk have spoken negatively of the annulment of the first round as an example of un-democratic European practices. President Trump would earn the undying love of a huge sector of the Romanian population if he condemned the action, or better yet, threatened sanctions.

I think the biggest question right now is not whether there will be violence, but the nature and extent of the disorder. I have no doubt that Brussels, NATO and some Western European intelligence agencies have signed on to the government’s actions. It will be interesting to see how governments in Paris, London and Berlin react to these events. Will they side openly with the Romanian government or simply downplay the situation?