Romanian outsider candidate catches fire with voters, then comes Russia allegations, seem familiar?

The situation: A non-traditional politician surprises pollsters and more conventional rivals to perform unexpectedly well with voters. Before long, charges start to emerge that the candidate’s surge may have been fueled by illegal support from Russia. 

Is it the story of Donald Trump in 2016? 

No, this time around it’s about Calin Georgescu, the nationalist frontrunner in the race to become Romania’s next president. Georgescu, who has been lauded by Trump, was arrested in Bucharest last week as he was about to formally register his candidacy. 

The events took place barely two weeks after U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned Europe was at risk from what he called “the threat from within.”

Sparked by mass migration, slowing economic growth, and rising energy prices, politics in Europe have taken a marked populist and turn in recent years, and Romania– the sixth most populous country in the 27-nation European Union and a key part of the EU’s eastward expansion since the early 2000s – appears ready to dovetail with that trend.

In November, Georgescu and his “Romania First” campaign finished first in the initia round of Romania’s presidential election. 

He earned about 23% of the vote in a six-candidate field, ahead of center-left leader Elena Lasconi, a former journalist, and sitting Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who finished within a few thousand votes of each other with around 19 percent each.

The pro-Russian Georgescu was scheduled to face Lasconi in a second round of voting in early December. But that vote was called off after widespread election irregularities, including alleged Russian tampering aimed at helping Georgescu.

The developments earned mixed reviews from European leaders and media. But multi-billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk loudly criticized the court’s decision, blasting Judge Marian Enache for the decision to call off the vote. “This guy is a tyrant, not a judge,” Musk wrote on X. 

A new first round of voting was scheduled to take place May 4, with the second round two weeks later. Georgescu was again expected to do well, with the country seeing pro-Georgescu protests in recent weeks and polls showing his support had expanded to as much as 38% of likely voters. Lasconi, meanwhile, sank into single digits.

On Wednesday, Georgescu was on his way to submit paperwork for the May vote when his aides said he was taken into custody by authorities and taken to the General Prosecutor’s Office in Bucharest for questioning. 

Prosecutors said 47 Romanian addresses connected to people and entities associated with Georgescu and his campaign were raided the same day on allegations of ‘false statements regarding sources of financing” and activities “with a fascist, racist, or xenophobic” character.

Ciolacu, the prime minister who decided not to run in the new presidential election, defended the prosecutors’ apprehension of Georgescu. “The judiciary is independent and the law must be applied regardless of who is involved,” he said.

Georgescu said authorities “will do anything to block my candidacy for the presidency.”

But anger about recent events went beyond Romani’s borders. “They just arrested the person who won the most votes in the Romanian presidential election,” Musk said. “This is messed up.”

Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu was among many in Romania who accused Musk of “a form of election interference” in his vocal support for Georgescu. 

Musk has not been shy about supporting European leaders he likes, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party that finished a strong second in elections there on Sunday.  

Vance earned global headlines earlier in the month when he told leaders at the Munich Security Conference that the biggest security threat they faced was not Russia or China but rather “the enemy within,” referring to what he called the suppression of certain voices. 

Later, Vance applied that point of view to Romania at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“You don’t have shared values if you cancel elections because you don’t like the result, and that happened in Romania, if you’re so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up,” Vance said.