Romania’s Constitutional Court dismisses annulment plea

Romania’s Constitutional Court has rejected the appeal by George Simion, leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), to annul the results of the second round of the presidential elections.

According to a statement from the court, the election results, which saw Nicușor Dan, Mayor of Bucharest and founder of the Save Romania Union (USR), win with 54.33% of the votes, remain valid.

Simion had secured 45.67% of the votes in the second round.

The statement read, “Following deliberations, the Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the request for the annulment of the elections on the grounds that it was unfounded. The decision is final and will be communicated to the Central Electoral Bureau.”

Nicușor Dan, the election winner, based his campaign on combating corruption.

Dan proposed judicial system reforms and harsher penalties for abuse of power. His platform also included promises such as the complete digitalization of public services, tax reductions for small businesses, and attracting foreign investments.

In foreign policy, Dan advocates for deeper integration with the European Union (EU) and continued support for Ukraine.

Regarding the elections, on May 18, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, stated that a Western European government had approached him with a request concerning the elections in Romania.

Durov added a baguette emoji, symbolizing France, asking his followers to guess which country was attempting to influence the situation. However, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied these claims.

At the time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov commented that the interference of European countries in the internal affairs of other states was not a new situation for him.