Romania votes for new parliament amid presidential race turmoil

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00:00These young Romanians take to the streets of Bucharest each night after far-right candidate Călin Georgescu

00:06won the first round of the country's presidential election.

00:12His fascist,

00:14ultra-nationalistic, pro-Russian topics are leading our country towards a very risky and dangerous territory.

00:21The nationalist candidate won over 22% of the votes, one-third of his supporters are young people.

00:34A vote cast against the system that shows disillusion with the main parties as a result of corruption,

00:40inflation and fears linked to the Ukraine war.

00:46A wide majority of young people choose him as a form of protest and justice.

00:52Călin Georgescu became popular in only a few weeks mainly through the social network TikTok.

01:02I heard about him now, a few days before the election.

01:05I didn't know who to vote for and what to do. In the first video that I saw, he speaks about the fact that we need change.

01:13His videos were watched by millions of people and massively shared among voters.

01:18A movement fueled by anger, largely overlooked by polling institutes.

01:27TikTok is a platform where it's very easy to reach many people.

01:32TikTok's algorithm is more volatile than other social networks. It's like when you throw a stone into a lake,

01:39there's a ricochet effect that becomes bigger and bigger.

01:42That's how TikTok works.

01:49Călin Georgescu is set to face center-right candidate Elena Lasconi during the runoff,

01:54but the country is on hold after the Constitutional Court asked for a recount of the ballots.

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