Latest news with #RomanianConstitutionalCourt
Euronews
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Fact check: Did France ask Telegram to silence Romanian conservatives?
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has alleged that France's intelligence chief asked him to "silence" Romanian conservative voices by banning them from his messaging app ahead of Sunday's presidential run-off, triggering a wave of disinformation online. Durov made the claims on social media the morning after Nicușor Dan, a pro-European independent candidate, beat his conservative opponent George Simion to the Romanian presidency in a tense runoff vote. Simion has since requested that the Romanian Constitutional Court annul the second-round result, citing 'irrefutable evidence' of meddling from France, Moldova and others. Durov has said he would be willing to "testify" in favour of Simion's claims. Euroverify reached out to Telegram asking for confirmation of the authenticity of Durov's statements and evidence of his allegations, but did not receive a reply. No evidence has yet emerged to suggest Durov's claims are true, and France has categorically rejected the allegations. In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry described the claims as "completely unfounded" and a "diversionary maneuver from the real threats of interference targeting Romania." France's foreign intelligence service, known as DGSE, has also strongly refuted the claims. But DGSE acknowledged it had been in contact with Durov "on several occasions" to remind him "of his company's responsibilities, and his own personal responsibilities, in terms of preventing terrorist and child pornography threats." Last August, Durvov, who is Russian-born but holds French citizenship, was detained by French authorities amid a probe into allegations of fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, promotion of terrorism and cyberbullying on Telegram. He has since been under strict legal control and is forbidden to leave France without authorisation. Telegram was founded by Durov and his eldest brother Nikolai in 2013, and has been championed by journalists and activists for its strong encryption and security. But the app has recently come under scrutiny for the spread of illegal content. French and Belgian prosecutors are currently teaming up to probe Telegram's role in allowing the spread of illicit content, including child abuse images and terrorist propaganda. The app has dodged being subject to the European Union's strictest rules under its digital rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA). Telegram claims it has fewer than 45 million active monthly users in the EU, the threshold for being closely monitored by the European Commission. Romania's presidential election was re-run in May after it was dramatically annulled back in November when a little-known ultra-nationalist with mystical leanings, Călin Georgescu, won an unexpected first-round victory. The Romanian Constitutional Court declassified intelligence reports that claimed a "state actor," believed to be Russia, was behind Georgescu's successful TikTok campaign. No undeniable public evidence has yet emerged to firmly confirm Russia's hand behind Georgescu's campaign. Georgescu was barred from the re-run, sparking controversy and outrage among his supporters at home and abroad. US vice-president JD Vance was among the prominent voices lambasting the Romanian Court's decision, in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference in February. Last December, Euroverify detected and debunked TikTok disinformation campaigns falsely accusing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of personally intervening to cancel the vote. While the European Commission has opened a probe under the Digital Services Act (DSA) into TikTok's alleged role in Georgescu's campaign, there is no evidence to suggest the EU executive had any stake in the domestic judicial decision to annul the November vote. Analysts have warned that Romania is particularly vulnerable to disinformation and foreign interference around key ballots. Romania's foreign, interior and defence ministries have accused Russia of orchestrating a propaganda campaign that claimed French troops stationed in Romania had been dressed in Romanian gendarmerie uniforms to interfere in the country's election.
Axios
09-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Don Jr. traveling to Romania before controversial election
Donald Trump Jr. will travel to Romania later this month shortly before the country's presidential election is held after a months-long delay. Why it matters: MAGA heavyweights, including Trump Jr., Vice President Vance and Elon Musk erupted after Romania's top court annulled the first round of the country's presidential election over worries of Russian meddling — lambasting it as evidence that European countries are silencing the right. Vance in particular has argued European elites pretend to care about democracy while ignoring the will of their voters, if those voters happen to choose "extreme" candidates. Catch up quick: Romanian government intelligence indicated that Moscow ran digital influence operations to benefit ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu, who had praised Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and won the election's first round. Trump Jr. slammed the decision at the time as "another Soros/Marxist attempt at rigging the outcome & denying the will of the people," referencing Democratic megadonor George Soros. The latest: The new first round of voting will be held on May 4, with a runoff penciled in for May 18. Trump Jr. is visiting on April 28. The Romanian Constitutional Court last month barred Georgescu from running. Zoom in: Trump is traveling to Romania to attend Trump Business Vision 2025, a business event, as part of a speaking tour organized by Salem Media, according to a source familiar with the matter. The person said Trump Jr. will not meet with government officials publicly or privately. Trump Jr.'s tour will also take him to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia.
Telegraph
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Activist judges and Russian interference: a ghastly warning for European democracy
On Sunday, Romania's Central Election Bureau barred far-Right firebrand Calin Georgescu from running in May's presidential elections. Georgescu immediately contested this decision but to no avail. After two hours of deliberations on Tuesday, the Romanian Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in support of banning Georgescu's election bid. Romania's decision to bar Georgescu from seeking his country's highest office has triggered mixed international reactions. European leaders have largely refrained from casting judgment on the Georgescu ruling. Despite Russia's track record of preventing critics of President Vladimir Putin from pursuing higher office, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov panned Romania's decision as a 'violation of all democratic norms in the centre of Europe.' While President Donald Trump has not commented on Romania's decision, his close ally Tesla CEO Elon Musk branded it as 'crazy.' Was Romania justified in barring Georgescu's candidacy or do its critics have a point? There is no easy answer to this question. On the one hand, there is evidence that Georgescu benefited from undisclosed financial support and Russian election interference. After the Constitutional Court annulled Georgescu's triumph in the first round of Romania's elections in December 2024, Romanian prosecutors raided three properties linked to Bogdan Peschir in Brasov. Peschir was accused of providing €360,000 to pro-Georgescu influencers on TikTok. Peschir's funds raised Georgescu's profile and transformed him from a fringe candidate into a frontrunner. This contradicts Georgescu's declaration of zero funds spent during the Romanian election campaign. Georgescu's promotion of Russia-friendly narratives has been a consistent feature of his political career. Georgescu has decried the artificiality of Ukraine and lionised Putin as a 'man who loves his country.' Georgescu has blamed the machinations of the US military-industrial complex for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and branded Nato's ballistic missile defence shield a 'disgrace.' The consistency of Georgescu's rhetoric ensures that the Kremlin viewed him as a reliable surrogate in Romania. Post-election research from the London-based Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) suggests that a coordinated campaign amplified Georgescu's candidacy on X, Telegram, Facebook and YouTube. After examining 3,500 pro-Georgescu posts and publications, the FPC discovered that the majority originated from Russian state media sources like RT and Sputnik. The Romanian authorities allege that Russia's interference on Georgescu's behalf went beyond disinformation. In early December, Romania's top security council revealed that the country's electoral system was subjected to 85,000 cyberattacks. As Russian cybercrime websites published access data for major Romanian election websites, it is plausible that the Kremlin masterminded this spree of cyberattacks. These arguments seem to crystallise Romania's case that it needed to ban Georgescu's campaign on national security grounds. But there is a bit more to the story. After the Brasov raids, the Romanian authorities did not directly link Peschir's TikTok ads to a Russian state order. There also isn't smoking gun evidence that Georgescu solicited Kremlin interference or was directly involved in Peschir's alleged money laundering scheme. And even if more solid evidence surfaces, Georgescu hasn't been convicted of anything in a court of law. These seeds of doubt could sow discord within Romanian society and undermine public confidence in Romania's democratic process. A plurality of Romanians voted for Georgescu because his rhetoric resonated with their worldview. Former Deputy Secretary General of Nato Mircea Geoana acknowledged this reality after Georgescu's first-round triumph by stating 'It's hugely mistaken to believe all of this is because of Russia. There is a whole cocktail of grievances in our society.' Georgescu's forced removal from Romania's political scene will inspire other Right-wing nationalists to assume his mantle. George-Nicolae Simion, the leader of Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) which is the second largest party in the Romanian parliament, is actively courting Georgescu's support base. Although Simion is pro-Nato, he shares Georgescu's Euroscepticism and opposition to militarily supporting Ukraine. An emboldened Simion, who has decried Georgescu's exclusion as a fatal moment for Romanian democracy, will deepen mistrust of Romania's political institutions. The legacy of Georgescu's exclusion could extend far beyond Romania's borders. Elsewhere in Europe, establishment politicians have branded their opponents on the far-Right as extremists. During the run-up to the June 2024 French legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron framed himself as a bulwark against extremism and political chaos. After the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) triumphed in Thuringia and recorded large gains in Saxony in September 2024, Germany's soon-to-be Chancellor Friedrich Merz disavowed the AfD as 'Right-wing extremist' and pledged to avoid any cooperation with the party. This rhetoric has been paired with legal actions against Right-wing populist and far-Right parties. In May 2024, a court in Münster deemed the AfD to be a suspected extremist organisation. This ruling stemmed from the court's belief that the AfD wanted to create a two-tier society that gave ethnic Germans more rights than descendants of immigrants. As the AfD was deemed culpable in 'illegal discrimination,' the court's ruling allowed the German intelligence services to monitor its activities and communications. French National Rally Leader Marine Le Pen has long faced scrutiny over her handling of her party's finances. Le Pen's 2014 First Czech Russian Bank loan fuelled legitimate concerns about her susceptibility to Kremlin interference. Legal pressure on the National Rally has reached new heights since last year's French legislative elections. In November 2024, a Paris prosecutor proposed a five-year prison sentence and five-year ban from political office for Le Pen for alleged misappropriation of European Parliament funds. The prohibition on political participation would take effect immediately and would not be relinquished even as appeals were underway. While campaign finance violations, unlawful discrimination and hostile state interference should have no place in European political life, the forced ostracisation of far-Right parties is a slippery slope. It risks making these parties even more extreme and further eroding public trust in the media, court systems and democratic institutions. Party leaders can be silenced but the ideas they espouse and grievances they awaken do not easily go underground. Romania's suspension of Georgescu's insurgent campaign is a double-edged sword. It protects Romania from the short-term threat of Russian interference while sowing doubts about the strength of its democracy. European leaders should take note.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Activist judges and Russian interference: a ghastly warning for European democracy
On Sunday, Romania's Central Election Bureau barred far-Right firebrand Calin Georgescu from running in May's presidential elections. Georgescu immediately contested this decision but to no avail. After two hours of deliberations on Tuesday, the Romanian Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in support of banning Georgescu's election bid. Romania's decision to bar Georgescu from seeking his country's highest office has triggered mixed international reactions. European leaders have largely refrained from casting judgment on the Georgescu ruling. Despite Russia's track record of preventing critics of President Vladimir Putin from pursuing higher office, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov panned Romania's decision as a 'violation of all democratic norms in the centre of Europe.' While President Donald Trump has not commented on Romania's decision, his close ally Tesla CEO Elon Musk branded it as 'crazy.' Was Romania justified in barring Georgescu's candidacy or do its critics have a point? There is no easy answer to this question. On the one hand, there is evidence that Georgescu benefited from undisclosed financial support and Russian election interference. After the Constitutional Court annulled Georgescu's triumph in the first round of Romania's elections in December 2024, Romanian prosecutors raided three properties linked to Bogdan Peschir in Brasov. Peschir was accused of providing €360,000 to pro-Georgescu influencers on TikTok. Peschir's funds raised Georgescu's profile and transformed him from a fringe candidate into a frontrunner. This contradicts Georgescu's declaration of zero funds spent during the Romanian election campaign. Georgescu's promotion of Russia-friendly narratives has been a consistent feature of his political career. Georgescu has decried the artificiality of Ukraine and lionised Putin as a 'man who loves his country.' Georgescu has blamed the machinations of the US military-industrial complex for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and branded Nato's ballistic missile defence shield a 'disgrace.' The consistency of Georgescu's rhetoric ensures that the Kremlin viewed him as a reliable surrogate in Romania. Post-election research from the London-based Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) suggests that a coordinated campaign amplified Georgescu's candidacy on X, Telegram, Facebook and YouTube. After examining 3,500 pro-Georgescu posts and publications, the FPC discovered that the majority originated from Russian state media sources like RT and Sputnik. The Romanian authorities allege that Russia's interference on Georgescu's behalf went beyond disinformation. In early December, Romania's top security council revealed that the country's electoral system was subjected to 85,000 cyberattacks. As Russian cybercrime websites published access data for major Romanian election websites, it is plausible that the Kremlin masterminded this spree of cyberattacks. These arguments seem to crystallise Romania's case that it needed to ban Georgescu's campaign on national security grounds. But there is a bit more to the story. After the Brasov raids, the Romanian authorities did not directly link Peschir's TikTok ads to a Russian state order. There also isn't smoking gun evidence that Georgescu solicited Kremlin interference or was directly involved in Peschir's alleged money laundering scheme. And even if more solid evidence surfaces, Georgescu hasn't been convicted of anything in a court of law. These seeds of doubt could sow discord within Romanian society and undermine public confidence in Romania's democratic process. A plurality of Romanians voted for Georgescu because his rhetoric resonated with their worldview. Former Deputy Secretary General of Nato Mircea Geoana acknowledged this reality after Georgescu's first-round triumph by stating 'It's hugely mistaken to believe all of this is because of Russia. There is a whole cocktail of grievances in our society.' Georgescu's forced removal from Romania's political scene will inspire other Right-wing nationalists to assume his mantle. George-Nicolae Simion, the leader of Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) which is the second largest party in the Romanian parliament, is actively courting Georgescu's support base. Although Simion is pro-Nato, he shares Georgescu's Euroscepticism and opposition to militarily supporting Ukraine. An emboldened Simion, who has decried Georgescu's exclusion as a fatal moment for Romanian democracy, will deepen mistrust of Romania's political institutions. The legacy of Georgescu's exclusion could extend far beyond Romania's borders. Elsewhere in Europe, establishment politicians have branded their opponents on the far-Right as extremists. During the run-up to the June 2024 French legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron framed himself as a bulwark against extremism and political chaos. After the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) triumphed in Thuringia and recorded large gains in Saxony in September 2024, Germany's soon-to-be Chancellor Friedrich Merz disavowed the AfD as 'Right-wing extremist' and pledged to avoid any cooperation with the party. This rhetoric has been paired with legal actions against Right-wing populist and far-Right parties. In May 2024, a court in Münster deemed the AfD to be a suspected extremist organisation. This ruling stemmed from the court's belief that the AfD wanted to create a two-tier society that gave ethnic Germans more rights than descendants of immigrants. As the AfD was deemed culpable in 'illegal discrimination,' the court's ruling allowed the German intelligence services to monitor its activities and communications. French National Rally Leader Marine Le Pen has long faced scrutiny over her handling of her party's finances. Le Pen's 2014 First Czech Russian Bank loan fuelled legitimate concerns about her susceptibility to Kremlin interference. Legal pressure on the National Rally has reached new heights since last year's French legislative elections. In November 2024, a Paris prosecutor proposed a five-year prison sentence and five-year ban from political office for Le Pen for alleged misappropriation of European Parliament funds. The prohibition on political participation would take effect immediately and would not be relinquished even as appeals were underway. While campaign finance violations, unlawful discrimination and hostile state interference should have no place in European political life, the forced ostracisation of far-Right parties is a slippery slope. It risks making these parties even more extreme and further eroding public trust in the media, court systems and democratic institutions. Party leaders can be silenced but the ideas they espouse and grievances they awaken do not easily go underground. Romania's suspension of Georgescu's insurgent campaign is a double-edged sword. It protects Romania from the short-term threat of Russian interference while sowing doubts about the strength of its democracy. European leaders should take note. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Politico
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Politico
The right's global techlash gains a cause celebre
Presented by Romania is suddenly commanding the attention of the tech-minded global right. No, not because of Andrew Tate's mysterious return from Romania to the States today — at least not entirely. It was the arrest and questioning on Wednesday of Calin Georgescu, the far-right presidential candidate who came out of nowhere with a TikTok-fueled campaign that powered him to first place in the first round of Romanian elections in December 2024. The first people to panic about Georgescu were European liberals, who treated his win as an alarming example of how right-wing insurgents — and potentially foreign actors like Russia — could use social media platforms to gain power. After an investigation by Romanian intelligence that claimed Georgescu was powered by social media campaigns similar to those deployed in Ukraine and Moldova, Georgescu's first-round victory was later annulled on grounds of alleged Russian interference. Now Georgescu's interrogation and indictment are sparking a mirror-image moment of outrage from politicians on the right. Across the globe, they're holding up Georgescu as the preeminent victim of a conspiracy between liberal governments and tech platforms to silence right-wing voices. 'They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election. This is messed up,' Elon Musk wrote on X. At this month's Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance unloaded on the Romanian courts that overturned the election, saying 'When we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.' In the global conversation about censorship and tech, the Georgescu case seems to be picking up right where the 'Twitter files' left off. To right-wing tech critics, his pariahdom looks like a perfect example of why the anti-disinformation efforts of the first Trump and Biden eras — whether by tech platforms, governments, or both— pose a grave threat to democracy. Writing in the socially conservative Compact magazine after last year's Romanian elections, columnist Nathan Pinkoski argued that their annulment was 'a direct application of the anti-disinformation paradigm that politicians and technocrats have promoted for years.' 'When the Romanian Constitutional Court cancelled presidential elections on the basis of a vague intelligence assessment, barely any public justification was provided for this extraordinary action,' Pinkoski told DFD today. 'Skeptics will charge that this looks like a brazen effort of lawfare to strip Romanian voters of the power to make their own electoral decisions. If this is a strategy to defeat populism, it seems doubtful it will succeed.' What distinguishes the anti-disinformation movement from previous forms of liberal information governance, Pinkoski wrote last year, 'is the claim that the advent of the internet requires a change in the rules.' Georgescu did, after all, win the election fair and square, as DFD wrote in the aftermath of the election and its annulment. Despite accusations that Georgescu's campaign was illegally powered by Russia and violated TikTok's own rules about election interference, no votes were tampered with. Nearly a quarter of Romania's voters pulled the lever for him, and even Georgescu's liberal rival criticized the government's cancelling of the election. The question Romania, and possibly the European Union and global liberal democracy, now face is whether it's even possible to fight what they see as election 'tampering' if it happens at the platform level rather than literally at the ballot box. Democracies now face a crucial test of whether they can maintain some semblance of legitimacy while attempting to clamp down on false information and conspiracy online, or whether they have no option but to let free speech reign and the chips fall where they may. For the right, the challenge is far less ambiguous. To them, the silencing of Georgescu's voters is vindication of their long-held belief that a secretive, octopus-like network of tech industry and liberal nonprofit interests are silencing conservative voices — and that now, with Trump and Musk in power, is the time to cut off its tentacles. 'To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or God forbid vote a different way, or even worse, win an election,' Vance continued in Munich. For its part, Silicon Valley has gone to great lengths to pivot away from the effort to fight 'misinformation' — not just since President Donald Trump won election, but long before it. Those moves might at least temporarily placate the Trump administration, with its transactional mindset. But longtime tech foes in Washington still say they want to keep the fight alive. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he wants to haul tech CEOs in front of Congress and interrogate them about allegedly silencing conservative voices. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NPR today that he's still waiting for the tech titans who lined up behind Trump to 'go out and say now that they're going to stop their censorship against conservatives.' For a once-obscure European right-winger, Georgescu's name is only beginning to echo through the politics of tech. doge's bite More Washingtonians are expressing their chagrin with Elon Musk's 'move fast and break things' approach to governance. POLITICO's Sophia Cai reported today on growing discontent with the Department of Government Efficiency's 'disruptive' reform of the bureaucracy, as 21 veterans of the U.S. Digital Service (now U.S. DOGE Service) resigned this week in an open letter that declared: 'We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.' 'When you have a tech company, every day you're failing because you're trying to bring something that doesn't exist into existence,' one anonymous former Trump official turned tech entrepreneur told Sophia. 'In government, you're just trying to deliver legally guaranteed services to the public. You can't fail. You have to succeed slowly.' This cultural collision has been a long time in the making, and doesn't seem likely to abate anytime soon. A National Park Service ranger warned that DOGE was deactivating critical safety devices, and an anonymous senior Federal Aviation Administration official said the agency is losing critical expertise just as a slew of high-profile aviation incidents have shaken America's confidence in flying. Still, the White House is standing by Musk: 'There is no reason why a CEO's approach cannot work in the nation's capital,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Sophia. 'The majority of Americans would rather have CEOs running the show than career bureaucrats.' this is your brain on tiktok A California Democrat wants social media users to see unskippable pop-up ads about the apps' potential harms. POLITICO's Tyler Katzenberger reported for Pro subscribers on a plan from California Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan that would mandate people see the daily ad explaining the potential risk of social media to youth mental health. 'I wanted a warning that gave readers at all levels enough time to digest — not something that could just be skipped past,' Bauer-Kahan told POLITICO in a statement Wednesday. The bill, AB 56, was referred to the California State Assembly's Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, which Bauer-Kahan chairs, and it will likely be heard in the coming weeks. post OF THE DAY The Future in 5 links Stay in touch with the whole team: Derek Robertson (drobertson@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@ and Christine Mui (cmui@
