Romania is reeling from the unexpected rise of far-right extremist Calin Georgescu who won Sunday’s first round of the presidential elections as an independent.

His rise went unnoticed by the political system – with his victory representing the first time a fringe candidate won a national election solely through a sophisticated media campaign.

Georgescu rode a wave of public discontentment with the political establishment combined with an intensive, years-long social media assault filled with anti-Western rhetoric.

“He is selling a utopian story. He’s selling a dream for conservative Romanians as an opposite to the classical politicians that are very transactional,” said the founder of the Romanian Ethical Media Alliance Dragos Stanca.

‘Highly loyal followers’ rather than bots ran social media machine

“We have now a TikTok messiah or something like that. Very successful. And we are ot sure if he will be able to win in the second round.”

Georgescu captured the protest vote against the mainstream political parties and their economic performance – using a well-oiled social media machine propagating extreme nationalist and pro-Russian messages to devout followers.

Rather than relying on bots or algorithms, these highly loyal followers propagated Georgescu’s message, says co-president of the Reper party Dragos Paslaru.

“Calin Georgescu’s pseudo-Messianic speech with which he presented himself won him followers rather than, as you can find in other parts of the world, committed supporters,” he added.

Bordering Ukraine and on NATO’s Eastern flank, Georgescu’s statements have all the hallmarks of a hybrid war against the West – following the same narrative which can be seen in other European countries.