PROFILE - Who is Calin Georgescu, ultranationalist candidate who led Romanian presidential race

By Nur Asena Erturk

Calin Georgescu, an ultranationalist Romanian presidential candidate who is critical of NATO's security role in the country, leads his main rivals Elena Lasconi and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in Sunday’s election, with less than 1% of the vote count remaining.

After almost 99.97% of the votes were counted, independent candidate Georgescu leads with 22.95% of the votes cast, followed by Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union (SRU) party (19.17%) and Ciolacu (19.1%), with the first two moving on to the presidential race for the possible second round, according to media reports.

Voters chose between over a dozen candidates to replace outgoing President Klaus Iohannis. The top two candidates will move on to a run-off on Dec. 8 if no single candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in the first round.

Georgescu was born in 1962 in Bucharest and graduated from the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Romania’s capital, according to Romanian media outlets.

He was an advisor to Environment Minister Marcian Bleahu in 1991 and later served as secretary general at the same ministry in the late 1990s.

Georgescu also worked as a director in the Foreign Ministry in the mid-2000s and was on the list of possible prime ministers in 2011 and 2012. He was also a candidate for prime minister of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) in 2021.

Some of his remarks to the media and the negative reactions led him to distance himself from the AUR.

Georgescu was also criticized for his remarks about NATO in 2021, in which he questioned the defense alliance. NATO does not provide Romania with the security it needs, and the country is outsourcing its defense and security responsibilities, Georgescu reportedly said then.

- Views on Russian, Ukraine

In 2021, the expert on sustainable development told broadcaster Metropola TV that if a war breaks out in Ukraine, it indicates that the interests of the American war industry are manifesting.

He denounced "manipulation" of the situation in Ukraine to serve the American war industry’s interests and noted that Romania was not prepared for anything.

Georgescu also praised Russia, saying that “Russian wisdom” was Romania’s chance. In a previous interview in 2018, he lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing him as “one of the few leaders” in the world.

Romania shares a border of over 600 kilometers (372 miles) with Ukraine.

He is married and has one child, according to local media.