Description: Far – right losing candidate in Romania’s presidential elections, George Simion announced that he would contest the result of the elections and appeal to Romania’s Constitutional Court to annul the process. Simion cited concerns of foreign interference from France and Moldova in the elections and mentioned that the result, which put independent centrist Nicusor Dan as the country’s next President, didn’t reflect the sovereign will of the Romanian people. Shortly after Nicusor Dan declared victory by almost a million votes, speculations arose regarding election interference from foreign actors, more specifically France and Moldova. Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, publicly stated that he was approached by the head of the DGSE, France’s intelligence service, who demanded from Durov to block channels or media campaigns supporting conservatives. Moldova was accused of illegally transporting people to voting stations which amounted to almost 80 thousand in surplus votes in Dan’s favor. Simion’s claims failed to be supported by any conclusive evidence, although Pavel Durov has publicly stated on his X profile that he was ready to testify before Romania’s Constitutional Court regarding the interference and in support of Romanian democracy.
Impact: Simion’s claims to contest the result of the election supported by Pavel Durov’s testimony could pose a potential risk to Romania’s constitutional order and precipitate small scale political crisis. Nicusor Dan’s unexpected victory came under scrutiny after serious allegations were leveled against the candidate to have garnered the support of France and Moldova as state actors in order to topple Simion and become the country’s next President. Romania’s Constitutional Court has so far refuted to entertain the idea of taking into consideration Simion’s appeal without any evidence. According to the last poll, Simion won the votes of around 5 million people who could decide to express their dissatisfaction in light of allegations of foreign interference through civil unrest, protests and other forms of demonstrations. Indications of a developing political crisis are unlikely, however, the large far – right voting body still remains a constant threat which could transpire towards challenging an unstable government in its days of initiation.