Romanian far-right NATO critic set for presidential contest

[noumoe]

A hard-right critic of NATO who has praised Russia is set to face a centre-right opposition leader in a presidential election run-off in Romania that could undermine its pro-Western stance after a shock outcome in the first-round vote.

Independent hard-right politician Calin Georgescu, 62, won 22.94% of votes in Sunday's voting, the electoral authority said. Centre-right contender Elena Lasconi, leader of the opposition Save Romania Union, lay second with 19.18%.

The outcome was a huge shock as pre-election opinion polls had made Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu the frontrunner. Ciolacu said he would resign as party leader following the result but would remain in the role of prime minister until a parliamentary election scheduled on Dec. 1.

The candidate of the centre-right Liberals, Ciolacu's coalition partners, also failed to secure a place in the election run-off, which will be on Dec. 8.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/el ... 024-11-25/