Source: The Guardian [UK]
“An ultranationalist, Moscow-friendly Nato critic is set to face a centre-right candidate in the runoff of Romania’s presidential elections after a shock first-round result that has upended the country’s politics and could jeopardise its support for Ukraine. With 99.98% of votes counted, Călin Georgescu, an independent who has praised Vladimir Putin as ‘a man who loves his country,’ was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%. The result is one of the biggest electoral upsets in Romania’s post-communist history and bears little relation to pre-election polls, which had shown the little-known Georgescu running at 5% and predicted the outgoing prime minister, the centre-left, pro-EU Marcel Ciolacu, would win comfortably. Ciolacu instead was in third on 19.15%.” (11/25/24)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/calin-georgescu-romania-election-hard-right-candidate