Călin Georgescu was, just a few months ago, a fringe ultranationalist known to few people even in Romania.
Today he is riding high for the second time in the country’s presidential contest, enjoying the active backing of not just Moscow but Washington, and defiantly resisting another attempt by the authorities in Bucharest to keep him out of power.
With the vocal support of JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services, Georgescu has become the ultimate symbol of how the Trump administration’s embrace of Moscow is leaving old European allies in the lurch.
“I totally relate to what Trump is saying,” Georgescu told the Financial Times in December before the vote was cancelled. “I want to have a very strong partnership with the US,” he said, while lauding Russia’s Vladimir Putin whose “patriotism” he said he seeks to emulate in Romania.
Georgescu topped the first round of last year’s presidential election which Romania’s constitutional court annulled, saying he probably benefited from an illegal campaign co-ordinated by Moscow.
Georgescu’s journey from soil engineer to far-right politician, Covid conspiracy theorist and social media sensation has led some politicians in his country to suggest lasting links with the communist-era secret police and Russia.
Crin Antonescu, a joint candidate for the pro-European coalition parties in the May presidential election, called him a “ghost” of Romania’s feared spy agency during the cold war, the Securitate.
“He is a ghost of the former Securitate, he has the discourse of the Securitate, he has probably the support of the old Securitate,” Antonescu said last month. “It is absolutely shameful that 35 years after a revolution against communism and against the Securitate, we are now faced with a huge mirage and a lie.”
Russia has voiced its support for Georgescu, who denies accusations his campaign was aided by Moscow. The Romanian politician plans to run again in May and is currently topping the opinion polls, with about 40 per cent of support.
The Russian foreign intelligence agency SVR said on Tuesday that a Romanian criminal probe, launched against Georgescu last week, was part of Europe’s “war on anti-establishment leaders who are open supporters of US President Donald Trump”.
Despite pressure from both the US and Russia, Bucharest seems intent on barring the 62-year old self-described “sovereigntist” from running. Two people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times his presidency bid was likely to be thrown out because of the criminal probe.
The allegations against Georgescu include serious crimes such as attempting to subvert the constitutional order with the help of fascist groups, which carries a potential prison sentence of more than 10 years. When he left the courthouse where he was taken for questioning, Georgescu performed a Nazi salute.
Călin Georgescu doing the nazi salute when coming out of the prosecutor office in Bucharest. pic.twitter.com/jXnXD4gOze
— codedlanguage (@codedlanguage) February 26, 2025
His contacts with Russian nationals, including pro-war hardliner Alexander Dugin, are currently not the subject of the criminal probe, said a senior Romanian official.
If Romania brings charges against Georgescu, it will be “defending its sovereignty”, the official said, adding that the administration in Bucharest was aghast at the support he is receiving from the US.
Georgescu has denied benefiting from any help from Moscow. But he did acknowledge knowing and meeting Dugin, who advocated for Russia to attack Ukraine long before Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“I know Dugin, of course I do,” Georgescu told Realitatea TV in December. “I met him once in Vienna, and then with other people.”
Dugin has described Georgescu as an “outstanding politician”. He told Romania’s Antena 3 CNN in December: “He is against globalism, against the liberal agenda, he is a Romanian patriot, convinced Orthodox, traditionalist, conservative. For Russia, it is much easier to deal with such a politician than with anyone else.”
Georgescu’s life story is filled with gaps and opaque details, according to four people who have followed his career.
After graduating in 1986, when Romania was ruled by communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Georgescu said he “acquired further experience from assignments in the UK and the US”, according to a résumé he posted online.
During the Ceaușescu regime, permission for foreign travel — especially “assignments” in western countries — was strictly controlled by the country’s secret police
“When someone was sent abroad to gain experience, they were first recruited,” said Hunor Kelemen, chair of the ethnic Hungarian UMDR party, which is part of the coalition government in Bucharest. “They could only travel with the Securitate’s blessing. And Georgescu’s entire post-communist career shows that he became part of the establishment.”
Georgescu did not respond to requests for comment.
In the 2000s, Georgescu lived mostly in Austria, buying property and raising a family. Between 2010-2012 he held an unpaid role as rapporteur to the UN and from 2013 to 2016, he led the European branch of the Club of Rome, a think-tank founded in the Cold War which included Soviet scientists, discussing issues such as sustainability and climate change.
His views grew more radical and conspiratorial during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he opposed vaccine mandates and lockdowns. In his social media clips, he often quotes the Bible, pop culture and Romania’s fascist leaders while making outlandish claims that soda drinks are filled with “nanochips” or that Covid does not exist because “nobody has seen it”.
He returned to Romania in 2021, and according to prosecutors, was soon organising with right-wing extremists for a 2024 presidential bid under the campaign motto “water, food, energy”.
Asked whether Georgescu may have been a former secret service agent, Romania’s body overseeing the Securitate archives (CNSAS) said it found no evidence of his recruitment. However the archives are not exhaustive on all the operatives of the communist regime.
“There is no information on Georgescu in the archives,” said CNSAS vice-president Mădălin Hodor. But, Hodor added, that is not to say Georgescu was not used as an asset after the fall of communism.
“He is precisely the kind of asset Russian intelligence would use,” Hodor said, pointing out that many of Georgescu’s opinions, including on the war in Ukraine, align with the Kremlin.
Corneliu Bjola, a Romanian professor of digital diplomacy at Oxford university, said the link with Dugin — who has been subject to US and EU sanctions since 2015 and 2022 respectively — spoke volumes.
“Who meets with Dugin? Not once, twice,” Bjola said. “It’s very difficult to get to Dugin. He probably had to go through Russian security services.”
As the Romanian government seeks to chart a course, a western official said it was now “fighting on two fronts”, given the US information operation in support of Georgescu.
Last month, US vice-president JD Vance told the Munich Security Conference that “Romania straight-up cancelled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbours”.
Russia’s spy agency this week repeated that claim, alleging that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen played a “key role” in the vote cancellation and had “called on the current authorities in Bucharest to bar Georgescu” from running again. A spokesperson for von der Leyen said it was “an untrue and flimsy accusation”.
US director for national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Romania was an example of how European allies “undermine democracy” and “don’t listen to the voices of the people”, while Trump adviser and X owner Elon Musk described the top judge on Romania’s constitutional court, which scrapped the vote, as a “tyrant”.
When Georgescu was taken in for questioning, Musk wrote on X: “They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election. This is messed up.”
While Bucharest pushes ahead with its probe into the far-right candidate, his rival Antonescu said he was in favour of Georgescu running so he could be beaten at the ballot box.
Hodor said Georgescu was a “hologram of Russian intelligence”. He added: “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck — then it’s probably a duck.”
Additional reporting by Henry Foy and Ben Hall in Brussels
