The far-right leader of the presidential race in Romania will not help Ukraine. If he wins
5 December 2024 08:49
Romanian presidential frontrunner Kelin Georgescu said on Wednesday that he would ban further exports of Ukrainian grain through Romania and further military aid to Kyiv if elected. Reuters reports this, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
In an interview with the agency on the eve of the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, ultranationalist Kelin Georgescu also questioned the effectiveness of European Union funding and said that Romania’s interests would come first if he wins.
Reuters reminds that since Russia attacked Ukraine, Romania has helped export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defense battery to Kyiv. And all of this will stop if he wins.
“It’s impossible to imagine having a war in the middle of Europe next to us, so the priority will definitely be that this war in Ukraine needs to be stopped immediately,” says Kelin Georgescu.
What else can this election change?
If Kelin Georgescu wins the election over pro-European centrist Elena Lasconi, experts say it will turn Romania’s policy upside down, pushing it closer to the belt of Central and Eastern European states with powerful far-right, Russia-friendly politicians, including Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria.
This week, Elena Lasconi appealed to voters to make sure Romania does not change course.
“We must choose between NATO’s defense and Putin’s war. We have to choose between EU prosperity and freedom of movement or the sound of tanks coming from the Kremlin,” the presidential candidate said.
“It’s hard to predict the outcome,” said Sergiu Misoi, a professor of political science at Babes-Bolyai University. According to him, the winner will be the one who can mobilize the undecided.
Romania’s pro-European forces are uniting
The day before, four parties that defend Romania’s European and Euro-Atlantic course, along with representatives of national minorities, agreed to form a government coalition to block the rise of right-wing radicals. According to the Romanian Hotnews, they appealed to all Romanian citizens to vote in the upcoming elections on Sunday, December 8, 2024, and to do so in an informed and rational manner, choosing a pro-European, democratic and secure Romania, rejecting isolationism, extremism and populism.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, who came third in the first round of the presidential election, said that pro-European forces are sending a clear signal that leads to support for Ms. Lascona.
