Georgescu is a university professor and international consultant on sustainable development, who worked for different United Nations organizations for more than a dozen years.
He leveraged TikTok to rally voters around him. “He managed to convince them by a combination of messianic speech, delivered in an elegant way, so as to capitalize on people’s frustrations,” said political analyst Radu Magdin.
Georgescu has drawn fierce criticism for his previous comments supporting Romania’s 20th-century fascist Legionary Movement, but rejected accusations that he is antisemitic.
Over the past decade, Georgescu was rumored several times as a potential prime minister for different parties, including Simion’s AUR.
Turnout across the country and among the Romanian diaspora was 52.5 percent, slightly above the 51.2 percent who voted in the previous presidential election in 2019.
The second round is set for Dec. 8 following Romania’s parliamentary election next Sunday.
Lasconi, the leader of the Save Romania Union, called on Romanians living in Canada and the United States, where polling stations were still open, to vote. “The fate of Romania depends on you,” she told them in a video posted on Facebook, adding that Romania’s pro-Western outlook was also up to them.
This story is being updated.