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The presidential elections in Romania, which will take place on Sunday, November 24, 2024, represent a crucial moment in defining the political direction of the country for the next five years, given the fact that, out of the 14 candidates for the supreme office in the state, 6 claim that national sovereignty it is more important than the pro-European and pro-North Atlantic path we have been on for 20 years now. Moreover, out of the 14 candidates we are left with only 13, after the withdrawal from the race, this week, of Ludovic Orban, who declared that he urges his supporters, even if they will find him on the ballot on Sunday, to vote for Elena Lasconi, the USR candidate for the position of president of Romania. Under these conditions, out of 13 candidates, we have 6 sovereigntists, i.e. almost half, a statistic that should give us chills considering that all six obtained from Romanian citizens with the right to vote the number of signatures required to support the candidacy, i.e. the minimum 200,000 supporters per candidate. We mention that supporting the sovereignist idea is not contrary to European principles, in fact it has a favorable current among citizens, but the way in which the six presidential candidates presented this idea is populist, toxic and harmful, intended to lead to isolationism and even leaving the EU or NATO.
According to official data, 18,994,290 voters are expected to participate in Sunday's presidential election, which could mark a return of the political left to the Cotroceni Palace after 20 years of right-wing presidency. Practically, Ion Iliescu was the last left-wing president elected by the Romanians, and his mandate ended at the end of 2004, with the election of Traian Băsescu as president.
In order to facilitate the voting process on Sunday, the Permanent Electoral Authority and the Central Electoral Bureau ordered the organization of 18,968 voting stations on the territory of Romania and 950 voting stations for the Diaspora, in the countries where Romanian citizens are located so that they too can exercise the right to vote. Moreover, as a novelty this year, in the presidential elections, voting abroad takes place for three days for each voting round - on November 22, 23 and 24, in the first round, respectively on December 6, 7 and 8, in the second round.
Also, for Romanian citizens from the diaspora who registered in advance, voting by mail was also available, a mechanism implemented to facilitate the voting participation of Romanians abroad, giving them the opportunity to express their electoral option without go to a polling station.
To find out which polling station they are assigned to, voters can access the website www.registrulelectoral.ro, belonging to the Permanent Electoral Authority. We note that citizens with the right to vote who are not in their home town on election day can exercise their right at any polling station in the town where they are located, and will be included in the additional list. This type of voting is only allowed in the presidential elections, not in the parliamentary elections that will take place on December 1, where voters can only vote in the ward they are assigned to.
We mention that, in order to ensure the correct and legal conduct of the electoral process, Romanian legislation provides clear sanctions for certain acts committed on election day. Thus, it is a crime to offer or give money, goods or other benefits for the purpose of determining the voter to vote or not to vote for a certain list of candidates or a certain candidate. For this crime, the punishment prescribed by law is imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years. Multiple voting, i.e. voting several times or in several places, is also a crime. The electoral legislation also provides for a wide set of contraventions, among which we mention the prohibition of photographing or filming the vote in the voting booth, as well as the entry of several people into the voting booth, except for those who need a companion to exercise that right.
• Many applicants, offers to match
In Sunday's election, voters will have the names of 14 candidates for the presidential elections on the ballot, even if Ludovic Orban withdrew from the race, a few days ago, in favor of the USR candidate, Elena Lasconi. The Central Electoral Bureau established, by drawing lots, the order of the candidates on the ballot, as follows: Elena Lasconi - Union Save Romania (USR), George Simion - Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), Marcel Ciolacu - Social Democratic Party ( PSD), Nicolae Ciucă - National Liberal Party (PNL), Kelemen Hunor - Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), Mircea Geoană - independent candidate, Ana Birchall - independent candidate, Alexandra Păcuraru - Alternative for National Dignity (ADN), Sebastian Popescu -New Romania Party (PNR), Ludovic Orban - Forţa Dreptei, Călin Georgescu - independent candidate, Cristian Diaconescu - independent candidate, Cristian Terheş - Romanian National Conservative Party (PNCR) and Silviu Predoiu - National Action League Party (PLAN).
We remind you that several candidates wanted to participate in the presidential race, but most of them did not meet the legal conditions, as their candidacy files were rejected by the Central Electoral Office. A special case this year was the involvement of the Constitutional Court of Romania, which banned the participation of European deputy Diana Iovanovici-Şoşoacă, president of the SOS party, in the race for the supreme position in the state. In its decision, the CCR claims that Sosoacă cannot participate in the presidential race because he had several public positions in which he showed that he despised the constitutional provisions, including those regarding our country's membership in NATO and the European Union, and that once he had been eventually elected, her oath for the accession to the position of president of the country would not have been valid because she would have sworn on a document she despises - the Romanian Constitution. The decision of the CCR was challenged in the civil courts and at the BEC by Diana Şoşoacă, who also requested the suspension of the November 24 poll, but we do not have a definitive sentence on the request made by the European deputy.
As for the candidates validated by the BEC, they presented their electoral platforms in the last month in which they mentioned their priorities and vision for the future of Romania. For example, Elena Lasconi, USR representative, emphasized the importance of government transparency and the fight against corruption. George Simion, the leader of the AUR, promoted Romania's national values and sovereignty. Marcel Ciolacu, the PSD candidate, emphasized economic development and social protection. Nicolae Ciucă, from the PNL, highlighted the need to strengthen national security and international partnerships. Kelemen Hunor, UDMR representative, promoted minority rights and regional development. Mircea Geoană, independent candidate, emphasized the importance of a balanced foreign policy and infrastructure modernization. Ana Birchall, also an independent, focused on justice reform and gender equality. Alexandra Păcuraru, from ADN, promoted entrepreneurship and innovation. Sebastian Popescu, the PNR representative, emphasized the need for reforms in education and health. Călin Georgescu, independent candidate, promoted sustainability and environmental protection, but based on a food-water-energy program, which has its origins in the communist period. Cristian Diaconescu, also independent, emphasized the need to strengthen the rule of law. Cristian Terheş, from the PNCR, emphasized traditional values and national sovereignty. Silviu Predoiu, the PLAN representative, promoted public administration reform and government efficiency.
Each of the candidates came with a well-structured plan in which measures were found that belong to the Government rather than to the exercise of the office of president of the country. Thus, among the respective measures, there is the Simion plan regarding the construction of homes at the price of 35,000 euros each, the increase of salaries and pensions (the Ciolacu program), a favorable framework for the development of the business environment (the Ciucă plan) and various social protection measures that all the candidates - have introduced in their electoral offers. If we were to analyze them and see them implemented, Romania should be a European paradise in the year 2029, at the end of the mandate of any of the 13 remaining candidates in the presidential race, only that those promises cannot be fulfilled without the support of the Government and the Parliament , which has proven to be very difficult over the past 30 years.
• Controversies regarding presidential candidates
Going beyond election promises, the presidential campaign was marked from the beginning by several scandals regarding the candidates. Thus, as early as October 7, the Nordis scandal broke out, after the publication of the investigation carried out by Recorder journalists, a real estate scandal that led to the resignation of Laura Vicol from the position of president of the Legal Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as from the PSD.
That scandal did not escape the PSD candidate in the presidential elections, Marcel Ciolacu, who was with his son and two other party colleagues two years ago in a private plane paid for by the Nordis company, with which they went to Monaco to see a Formula 1 race and Paris to watch the Champions League soccer final.
Marcel Ciolacu also had to endure criticism in the case of his nephew who obtained European funding for a company established two years ago to achieve to some projects in the field of green energy, projects that he quickly disposed of in 2024. Among the scandals that marked the presidential campaign of the head of the PSD, we also mention the reports that USR, AUR and REPER addressed in March to the General Prosecutor's Office regarding a possible manipulation of the capital market by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in the case of Roşia Montană, but also the one regarding the original baccalaureate diploma of the one who he wants to become the president of Romania.
The USR candidate, Elena Lasconi, is not without scandals either, who a year ago argued with her daughter because of the pro-traditional family vote that Lasconi expressed in the referendum supported by PSD and Liviu Dragnea in 2018, a referendum that failed because it did not meet the required attendance of 30% of the voters. Moreover, throughout the electoral campaign, Elena Lasconi was accused of favoring her husband's employment as a parliamentary advisor to the USR group, but also of being involved in a criminal case under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the illegal spending of European funds in a project carried out by Câmpulung City Hall.
George Simion, the candidate from the AUR side is also involved in several controversies. Thus, Simion was declared persona non grata in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, being accused by the authorities in Kiev and those in Chisinau of subversive activities and links with Russian intelligence services. Moreover, the candidate from the AUR has proven in the last four years that he is an aggressive person, which was demonstrated in the Chamber of Deputies, when he insulted Alfred Simonis, when he physically assaulted Virgil Popescu - the former Minister of Energy, and when he assaulted- physically and verbally on Senator Diana Sosoacă.
Nicolae Ciucă (PNL) is no stranger to scandals either. Thus, the former prime minister and the current president of the Senate was accused of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, by the journalist Emilia Şercan, from PressOne, an accusation that attracted a wave of threats and repressions from those who support the press colleague Nicolae Ciuca. Mrs. Şercan also addressed the Justice in the case of Ciucă's plagiarism, but both the Ministry of Education and the Prosecutor's Office preferred to postpone making a decision as long as possible or to put the handkerchief on the table, that is, to bury the case.
Another scandal involving the PNL candidate is the premature election campaign he organized around the publication of his book, when the Liberals paid more than 2 million euros for the billboards for 400 impressive billboards placed along the main roads in country, in which the respective book was announced alongside the image of Nicolae Ciucă. Moreover, the soldier in the service of the country - as Ciucă likes to be called - also faced an external scandal after the Recorder reporters conducted a series of interviews with the Italian generals who coordinated the military actions in Iraq, during the time when he was there there was also the current reserve general Nicolae Ciucă, the Italians abolishing the myth of the hero from Nassiriya in which the PNL candidate posed for many years at Sunday's presidential elections.
• Troll farms and visits to Moscow
The former deputy general secretary of NATO, Mircea Geoană, was also involved in scandals, after USR and Elena Lasconi accused him of meeting with Tal Hanan, a figure known for the manipulation of elections in various countries, who allegedly requested to help him. Moreover, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu claimed that there are troll farms supporting Geoană's campaign, requesting an investigation in this regard. Geoana denied these accusations, especially since there is no photo or video image in which she appears with Tal Hanan, but different pictures in which the two leave alone from the building where the Aspen Institute Romania headquarters are located.
The former Deputy Secretary General of NATO was also accused that one of those who supported him in the spring of this year had ties to an agent of influence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but Geoana specified that he had no connection with the person and denied any contact with the Russian agent.
Another scandal that broke out recently was the one in which, based on photo images, Mircea Geoană was allegedly accused of visiting Ana Maria Cătăuţă, PSD deputy quite often, but he mentioned that the relationship between them is a professional one and that it is a person who is part of his extended team supporting him in the campaign.
Mircea Geoană did not escape the accusations regarding his private visit to Moscow in April 2009, about which he said on Monday, at the debate organized by Digi 24 and Babeş-Bolyai University: "I was in Moscow in 2009 on a private, exploratory visit , as a candidate for the Presidency of Romania, where I talked with an adviser to the Russian president at the time, Dmitri Medvedev".
Kelemen Hunor (UDMR) is accused by some of his counter-candidates, especially the sovereignists, that he has often made statements regarding the autonomy of the Szeklerland and that he is close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
As for Ana Birchall, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice in the Dăncilă government, she is accused of not opposing in Parliament in 2017 and 2018 the projects on justice laws initiated by the controversial Florin Iordache. Before the start of the presidential election campaign, in the context of the scandal at SNSPA regarding the sexual and emotional assault of some female students by professor Alfred Bulai, Ana Birchall accused Marius Pieleanu of the same acts, whose behavior she said would have been also known by PSD leaders.
Alexandra Păcuraru (ADN), although she was not involved in scandals, is accused by her opponents for the fact that her father, Maricel Păcuraru, is involved in several criminal files instrumented by different prosecutor's offices, even by DNA.
The independent Călin Georgescu, who was supported in 2020 by the AUR for the position of president of the country, is accused of pro-Russian sympathies and of promoting conspiracy theories, while the former foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu is accused of his relationship with Traian Băsescu, but also his participation in controversial political structures, such as the UNPR, a party that was founded and led by the reserve general Gabriel Oprea.
MEP Cristian Terheş (PNCR) has made several controversial statements over time regarding the measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and has promoted conspiracy theories. Regarding his attitude during the pandemic, we recall that Terheş was sanctioned by the leadership of the European Parliament at that time.
Silviu Predoiu (PLAN) is controversial only because he was director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, a position from which he learned more about his opponents on Sunday.
What is certain is that, in light of the above, the choice that citizens with the right to vote must make on Sunday is a difficult one, because it seems that in 2024 the political class in our country is incapable of making us a quality offer regarding the occupation the position of president of the country, a position that fell into derision after 10 years of Iohannis' mandate.
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