“You have stolen our vote!” shouted thousands of pro-Georgescu Romanians who gathered today outside the Parliament building in Bucharest, protesting against the cancellation of the presidential elections, following a campaign marked by suspicions of Russian interference.

The Constitutional Court, which is based in the massive building, annulled the election in early December in an extremely rare development for a European Union country. Calin Georgescu, prevailed in the first round.

Authorities accuse him of benefiting from an illegal campaign of support on the TikTok platform. The European Commission has announced the opening of an investigation.

The country is set to hold new elections in May, a date expected to be confirmed next week.

“We are living in a dictatorship”

Critical of the EU and NATO and opposed to any military aid to Ukraine, Georgescu has made several appeals to the judiciary, including one to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

His lawyers formally appealed the annulment to the Constitutional Court today. “This decision that plunged Romania into chaos must be urgently reconsidered,” the 62-year-old former high-ranking civil servant said in a video message to his supporters.

“We are living a dictatorship,” another candidate, George Simion, told reporters, saying he was there “to defend democracy.” He called for a new demonstration Sunday in the capital and joined the rally outside the courthouse.

Simion’s party, AUR, garnered 18 percent of the vote in the recent parliamentary elections, and in total, the three factions of the nationalist bloc now account for a third of voters, more than triple the percentage recorded by AUR in 2020.

Against this rising camp, several pro-European political forces formed a government in late December and presented a common candidate for the presidency, Krin Antoneskou. The 65-year-old former Liberal leader “suspended” his candidacy, however, citing a lack of support from the main parties.