'This certainly raises a lot of questions about the role of TikTok and the role of social media in general'

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00:00Well, people were quite surprised here by the announce of the constitutional court,

00:05because only a few days ago, the court had validated the results of the first round.

00:09But this was, of course, before the documents by the intelligence services were declassified

00:15and before it was confirmed that Kalin Drogescu benefited from an orchestrated, very well-coordinated

00:22campaign on the social network platform TikTok, where in only a few weeks he reached increased

00:30visibility.

00:31There's also allegations of foreign interference, including from Russia.

00:36And so the judges convened in an emergency meeting earlier today and announced their

00:42decision to completely cancel the entire electoral process for the presidential election.

00:47No new date has been set yet, and they still haven't published officially what their reasons

00:53were behind this choice.

00:55Now, here in Romania, a lot of people are surprised, but also very angry at this decision.

01:02This is not only valid for far-right parties or the voters of Kalin Drogescu, but also

01:07Elena Lasconi, who was supposed to face Kalin Drogescu in the runoff.

01:12She said that this was an attack against democracy and that the country risks falling into anarchy.

01:20And so we'll have to see when the new date will be set.

01:23This could take weeks or even months, because the whole process will have to be restarted

01:28from the beginning.

01:30And this is likely a decision that will be taken by the future government after and if

01:36the constitutional court also validates the results of the parliamentary elections that

01:41took place last Sunday.

01:42Well, it gets into a whole area, Maria, doesn't it, about to what extent TikTok and politically

01:49coordinated campaigns can be acceptable, the court clearly saying it isn't, and also questions

01:55about legitimacy of the election, because as you referred to, you have these two parties,

02:00you know, the centre-left and centre-right, that have ruled for three decades.

02:03There'll be many political voices saying, is this just an attempt to keep a grip on

02:09power, to stop any outsiders coming in?

02:11I just wonder if you'd just expand a bit on what other political reaction you're seeing.

02:15And also, was it a shock to you when you saw this breaking today?

02:18I imagine you had to look at this twice, didn't you?

02:21Well, this certainly raises a lot of questions about the role of TikTok, about the role of

02:26social media in general in this campaign.

02:28I mean, the visibility that he obtained on TikTok in just the two weeks was not just

02:33during the official political campaign.

02:36This was content that was not labelled by the platform as political content, and so

02:40that it reached many more people, millions of people, actually, as if it was just another

02:46content by influencers that have no link to the politics.

02:50And then there's also the fact that he campaigned on TikTok after the political campaign was

02:55already closed.

02:56And this raises the questions of the role of TikTok and what could TikTok have done

03:01to stop this, and if it was directly involved in his campaigning in this coordinated sort

03:07of campaign.

03:09But this is, of course, a subject that the ruling parties and now the constitutional

03:14court are giving for justifying this cancelling of the election.

03:20But the reason why a lot of people are angry at this decision is not because they think,

03:25or at least for those that are not far-right voters, they think, yes, it's true, there's

03:31a problem.

03:32There's probably Russian interference.

03:34But people have voted.

03:35Millions of people have voted.

03:37Votes were recounted.

03:38Votes were validated.

03:39So what does this say about democracy if this vote can be cancelled now?

03:43Does this mean that the traditional parties are just trying to hang on to power?

03:49And what does this mean also for the legislative elections, for the parliamentary elections

03:53that still haven't been validated by the constitutional court?

03:57So yes, very surprising decision.

04:01And what's more worrying is what's going to happen next, because it's possible that a

04:06lot of people will take to the streets, will protest, especially those supporting Kalin

04:11Djordjescu.

04:12And will this further far-right sentiment, will this even increase the chances of the

04:19far-right in the future?

04:21We'll have to see what happens in the coming months.

04:23Briefly, Maria, just remind us why Kalin Djordjescu is considered far-right and what

04:29else is coming from his office this evening?

04:31Has he spoken at all?

04:34He hasn't spoken yet.

04:37The reason why he's considered as a far-right candidate are multiple.

04:41He has very strong stances with regards to nationalism, sovereignism.

04:49His discourses are believed to be inspired by legionary movements that were fascist movements

04:56in Romania's history before communism.

05:00He's also extremely conservative.

05:02He is against LGBT rights, for example.

05:06He said things that are considered as very sexist.

05:10He says feminism is an absurdity and things like that.

05:15And then he has also a very anti-Ukraine, I'd say, very anti-Western, anti-NATO stance,

05:23which leads to people labelling him far-right.

05:27Of course, he's an independent candidate, so to say.

05:29He doesn't run under any party label, but this is how he has been seen by analysts and

05:35by observers.

05:36Maria, good to talk to you.

05:37Maria Gert, Nikolaescu, a correspondent in Bucharest.

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