Călin Georgescu is the surprise candidate who is in third place, according to the first exit polls at 21:00, contrary to expectations not even two months ago, when Georgescu did not even appear in the polls. ISE and G4media have shown in exclusivity how how Georgescu has risen significantly in the polls in the last month after a massive promotion strategy on Tik Tok, according to data analyzed by reporters on the Chinese social network. Read the full analysis here.
Călin Georgescu’s discourse is strongly anti-Semitic, legionary in nature, „messianic”, pro-Russian and anti-Western. He was born on March 26, 1962, claims to come from a family of priests, and declared in the podcasts he took part in during the campaign that he was „not a candidate” but „at the level of a calling, one for all and all of us with God”.
According to his official website, he has been married since 2006 to Cristela Georgescu and has three sons. On his official website, Georgescu notes that he graduated from the High School of Mathematics and Physics in Bucharest (with a grade of 8.00 in the Baccalaureat, according to the website) and from 1981-1986 he graduated from the Faculty of Land Improvement at the Nicolae Bălcescu Agronomic Institute in Bucharest (with a state exam, grade 10.00, according to the website).
Georgescu claims to have received his PhD in 1999 in pedology (soil science) from the Nicolae Balcescu Agronomic Institute in Bucharest.
Former „prime minister” of Simion and AUR, apologist for war criminals
Călin Georgescu was visible on TV when George Simion named him AUR’s proposal as prime minister, but he stepped back shortly afterwards in February 2022.
At the time, Georgescu became a source of tension between George Simion and AUR co-president at the time, Claudiu Târziu, after he advocated for war criminals by calling legionary leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and Romanian Holocaust perpetrator Ion Antonescu „heroes”. He also said of the assassination of Nicolae Iorga by the legionaries that „history is mystified”. Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against him for eulogizing those guilty of genocide and war crimes, but it is not clear at what stage the investigation is.
- Georgescu has also often advocated for „Russian wisdom,” and in an election debate on Digi24, Georgescu was unable to verbalize whether or not he is an admirer of Putin, although the moderators insisted on a simple „Yes” or „No” answer. Georgescu became visibly irritated, commented that he receives this question too often, and did not answer whether or not he admires Vladimir Putin, who is internationally indicted for war crimes in Ukraine.
Following the episode in which he eulogized war criminals, Georgescu was withdrawn from AUR, „losing” the position of „prime minister” and being nominated as the party’s „honorary president„. A month later, Georgescu announced that he had broken off talks with the extremist party (February 2022). Călin Georgescu was no longer visible in the mainstream media, but he started to rise on the Chinese social media network Tik Tok.
- Tik Tok is also the favorite channel of Diana Șoșoaca, head of the extremist party S.O.S Romania, who shares with Georgescu anti-Ukraine, anti-EU/NATO/West and strongly pro-Russian discourse.
On October 1st, 2024, Georgescu filed his candidacy for the presidential elections, and it was validated by the Central Electoral Bureau, a sign that Georgescu managed to collect more than 100,000 signatures in the country, but without having political structures in the territory or the support, at least openly, of any party.
Subsequently, the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) decided, on the Wednesday before the elections, to remove all online videos and electoral materials of independent candidate Călin Georgescu that do not contain the identification code of the financial trustee.
- G4Media and ISE have revealed how a wave of videos appeared on TikTok in the last few days before the first round of votes filmed in voting booths in the Diaspora: Some Romanian voters were filming themselves putting the stamp on candidate Călin Georgescu, with reporters identifying hundreds of such recordings on the Chinese network. Read the details here.
- Also in the final days before the elections, several ghost websites on social media were claiming Georgescu was out of the presidential race: the ghost websites belonged to the propaganda network of the extremist AUR party, according to a Misreport analysis from 2023. Details, here.
Professional career, according to the CV on the official website:
1986 – 1989 Land improvement engineer (Făgăraș, Brașov)
1991 – 1992 Advisor to the Minister of Environment (Bucharest)
1992 – 1994 Training and specialization in sustainable development strategies and environmental policies in the United Kingdom and the United States
1995 – 1996 Secretary General in the Ministry of Environment (Bucharest)
2000 – 2003 Director of the International Economic Organizations Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bucharest)
1996 – 2008 Project Director within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), coordinator of Sustainable Development Plans in over 40 cities and counties in Romania (Bucharest)
2008 – 2009 National Coordinator of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, a project of the Romanian Government, under the aegis of the Romanian Academy and UNDP
1996 – 2012 Executive Director of the National Center for Sustainable Development (Bucharest)
2010 – 2013 UN Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the transportation of toxic and dangerous products on the realization of human rights (Geneva) www.mae.ro/node/2647)
2013 – 2015 President of the European Research Center of the Club of Rome (Vienna)
2015 – 2016 Executive Director of the UN Global Sustainability Index Institute (Geneva)
2016 – 2021 International independent environmental consultant, Baden bei Wien
2021 – present Lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Pitești
Publications, according to the official website
- Romania 2020 (Ed. Conspress, 1998)
- Reprofesessionalization of Romania (IPID, 2008)
- Romania’s chance – the people (IPID, 2009)
- Romania after the crisis. Reprofessionalization (Ed. Compania, 2010)
- For a common ideal (Ed. Compania, 2012)
- Cumpăna României (Ed. Logos, 2014)
- The Great Renaissance. Truth. Freedom. Sovereignty. Exit from the Matrix (Ed. Prestige, Bucharest, 2023)
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