How It Will Be Done in Europe
Romania was the first country in Europe to shut down blatant foreign interference in its election. J.D. Vance was not pleased.
On February 14, 2025, speaking to the Munich Security Conference, J.D. Vance’s opening shot was aimed at Romania. Europe, he said, had betrayed the “shared values” that have been the basis of the American-European alliance for so long.
Vance described being “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.
“Now, these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears,” he said. “For years, we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values.”
The only problem with Vance’s “shock” and indignation is the election that was annulled has nothing to do with shared democratic values. The Romanian courts stopped a blatant effort by foreign powers to install a far right government in Romania by subterfuge, with red arrows flashing toward Russia as the instigator. It didn’t bother Vance that the foreign election manipulation had happened. It bothered him that it had been stopped. Because of course, he was rooting for the far-right instigation.
It was not the worst part of the speech. But it opens a window to how this will be done in Europe, with Russia on one side and the Trump administration on the other, as the fight for the survival of the EU and NATO moves into full swing.
Romania held a presidential election on November 24, 2024. Calin Georgescu, the pro-Russian, far right candidate, came away with 22.9% of the vote. There were oddities. Just four weeks before the election, Georgescu had only 1% of the vote. He was running as an independent with no party machine behind him. In his election filings, he claimed that he spent zero funds on his campaign.
Calin Georgescu is cut from the same mold as Viktor Orban and Jair Bolsonaro. He frequently warns that Romania’s Christian identity is under threat from “globalist elites” and “secular forces” determined to eradicate traditional values. He claims that Romania’s sovereignty is being eroded by the European Union’s promotion of multiculturalism, which he frames as incompatible with the country’s Christian roots. He invokes the so-called “Great Replacement” theory, which claims Christian populations are being systematically replaced by a plot (point finger at Jews here…) to import immigrants and non-Christian communities. He is anti-NATO, anti-EU, promises to outlaw “LGBT propaganda” and has vowed to withdraw support for Ukraine.
A center right candidate, Elena Lasconi, won 19% in the November election. As no candidate achieved a majority, a second round was supposed to be held on December 8.
Two days before the runoff, on December 6, the Constitutional Court annulled the outcome of the first round. A new election was scheduled for May.
Why? Two days before that, on December 4, Romanian intelligence services had declassified documents that said the country had been the target of an “aggressive hybrid Russian action” during the election campaigns.
If you’re wondering why Russia would be intensively interested in having a Romanian president who is anti-NATO, anti-EU, and vows to withdraw support of Ukraine, a look at the map of the region may answer that question.
Georgescu went from 1% to 22% with the help of a massive Tik Tok campaign, and a vast manipulation operation. 25,000 (likely fake) Tiktok accounts that had been largely dormant since 2016 and began actively disseminating pro-Georgescu material just two weeks before the election. According to the intelligence documents, from November 11 on, “the entire network was activated at full capacity.”
Influencers were recruited to promote Georgescu. Romania’s own mini-Elon, crypto-bro Bogdan Peschir, called the “King of Tik Tok” in Romania, paid out $381,000 to more than 100 Tik Tok influencers with a combined total of over 8 million followers for promoting Georgescu. When asked where the money came from, Peschir responded, “it’s none of your business.”1
According to Radio Free Europe,2 which reviewed the released intelligence documents:
Another method used to promote the independent candidate involved the creation of accounts that falsely represented institutions of the Romanian state.
Dozens of TikTok accounts were found that falsely used the intelligence service's logo and the title Anti-Terrorist Brigade (BAT), each displaying thousands of followers and over 100,000 likes.
These fake accounts had supportive posts for Georgescu, presenting the false notion that these state institutions supported him.
In addition, Georgescu's posts were not marked as belonging to a candidate, and this favored their mass dissemination. Other candidates whose posts were labeled as belonging to a candidate had a diminished online presence.
Romania's intelligence services hinted that large sums of money would have been spent in the operation. Georgescu, according to information revealed in the declassified documents, declared to Romanian electoral authorities that he spent nothing on his campaign.
The intelligence service linked the operation to Russia by noting that access data for official Romanian election websites was published on Russian cybercrime platforms. The access data was probably procured by targeting legitimate users or by exploiting the legitimate training server, the intelligence service said.
It added that it had identified more than 85,000 cyberattacks that aimed to exploit system vulnerabilities.
‘The attacks continued intensively including on election day and the night after elections,’ the agency said in one of the declassified documents.
The operating mode and the amplitude of the campaign leads us to conclude the attacker has considerable resources specific to an attacking state.
After the annulment of the results and cancellation of the December 8 runoff, Georgescu and his supporters staged a protest in Bucharest. About 100 people showed up. Thousands of young Romanians have protested in other areas. Police detained more than a dozen people as they were heading toward Bucharest carrying guns, machetes, and knives; according to police, they were traveling to “disrupt public order and peace.” Among them was Horatiu Potra, leader of the contingent of Romanian private military contractors fighting in the African nation of Congo, who had been sentenced to two years in prison in 2011 after being found guilty of founding a paramilitary group.
In January, rallies have been organized (likely online) and thousands of Georgescu supporters have halted traffic and marched through the streets waving Romanian flags and carrying Christian icons. On January 12, Romania’s pro-Russia party, the AUR, organized a protest of thousands, chanting “Freedom,” “Democracy,” and “We are the people; [Romanian President Klaus] Iohannis, the traitor.”
On February 10, President Iohannis announced that he would be stepping down on February 12. He was pushed by members of the ruling coalition to do so, as a gesture to “calm the country down and bring peace and stability.”
This is how it’s done. And as J.D. Vance said to the Munich Security Conference, "the very same thing could happen in Germany, too.” When it does, J.D. Vance has left us with no doubts about which side the US administration will be on.
“Romania's 'King Of TikTok' Tied To Alleged Scheme Boosting Far-Right Presidential Candidate,” RadioFreeEurope, December 6, 2024, https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-election-scandal-tiktok-bogdan-peschir-georgescu/33229674.html
“Romanian Elections Targeted By 'Aggressive Hybrid Russian Action,' Declassified Documents Show,” RadioFreeEurope, December 4, 2024, https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-russia-election-interference-tiktok/33227010.html