Romanian far-right politician Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of the presidential election last autumn and tops the polls ahead of the May vote, has appealed to the Constitutional Court (CCR) over the Central Electoral Bureau’s (BEC’s) decision to block his presidential candidacy.

The BEC rejected Georgescu’s candidacy on March 9 on the grounds that the politician failed to meet the basic requirements to “defend democracy” and state institutions. 

The ruling is based on the Constitutional Court's decisions on the annulment of last year's presidential elections and the rejection of SOS leader Diana Sosoaca's presidential candidacy because of her extremist rhetoric, the BEC explained. 

Also on March 10, the CCR received an appeal against the electoral authority’s approval of the candidacy of Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan.

The CCR reported the appeal against Dan and mentioned that the authors are requesting the court to check the candidate's collaboration with the former communist intelligence services. But the authors of the appeal are not disclosed.

The CCR will rule on both appeals on March 11, shortly before the March 15 deadline for submitting candidacy files.

Before challenging the electoral authority’s ban on his candidacy, Georgescu met with George Simion and Anamaria Gavrila – the leaders of the far-right parties Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and the Party of Youth (POT), which are supporting him in his presidential campaign. 

As time is running out, the option of choosing another candidate such as AUR leader George Simion to run for the de facto far-right coalition formed by AUR and POT has been circulated. However, Simion has ruled out this scenario for the time being.

"I am not in a position to speak about my hypothetical candidacy because we support Calin Georgescu," said Simion, answering a journalist’s question.

Simion also said that his party has not collected the necessary signatures for his candidacy.

Another option for an alternative presidential candidate to run for the far-right coalition would be sociologist Dan Dungaciu, a supporter of AUR. 

Dungaciu, however, said that such a scenario has not been discussed and Simion and Gavrila also denied the scenario.

Dungaciu, a professor at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Bucharest, was sued by the National Anticorruption Agency (DNA) in 2024 for abuse of office,  G4Media reported.