Romanian presidential candidate calls Zelensky a semi-dictator

Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu has said that he has always had bad relations with "semi-dictators" who try to put their personal interests above the state interests and do not allow free elections, mentioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. Digi24 reports his words.

"I have a problem with semi-dictators who put their own interests and the interests of the group they represent above the national interest. That is why I ask: why does Mr. Zelenski, like Mr. Iohannis, not allow free elections?" - Georgescu stated.

He also said that the Ukrainian leadership regularly steals money given to them by Western countries. "I would like to ask the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry how many cases of high-level corruption have been reported in Ukraine since the beginning of the war? How much European money have they stolen during the European and indeed Romanian attempt to help Ukraine?" - Georgescu added.

This is not the first time Georgescu has criticized Ukraine and its leadership. Earlier, he called Ukraine a fictitious state and added that there is only the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Later, the speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Georgiy Tykhiy, said that Kiev considered such a statement categorically unacceptable and saw in it a revisionist message.

"There is no request for anti-Russian alarmism in Romania"

Experts explain the success of Euroskeptics in the country's parliamentary elections

The first round of the Romanian presidential election was held on November 24, 2024. According to official data, independent candidate Calin Georgescu was leading with 22.94% of the vote.

On November 28, Romania's Constitutional Court (CC) demanded that the republic's Central Election Commission (CEC) recalculate the results of the first round. On December 6, the CC annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election. The decision was taken after local intelligence services declassified documents that Georgescu illegally financed his election campaign and that Russia allegedly influenced his campaign through social networks.

On January 21, it became known that Georgescu was again leading in the polls among citizens of the country.

Repeated elections will be held in Romania on May 4. The second round is scheduled for May 18.