Indictment of Călin Georgescu

The 2024 round of presidential elections was annulled allegedly because a foreign state (Russia) influenced the vote in favor of independent candidate Călin Georgescu. Despite promises, no evidence has ever been produced by the Romanian authorities to substantiate those allegations. The only information available in the public space originated with Western intelligence services or investigative journalists (Toșa Reference Toșa2024; Coman Reference Coman2025; Mazilu Reference Mazilu2025). In the absence of evidence, the Constitutional Court decision to annul the vote was vehemently contested both inside and outside of Romania. A series of street protests occurred in early 2025 in several Romanian towns and Bucharest in support of Georgescu, organized by sovereigntist parties. An IRES survey conducted in December 2025 found that 61% of respondents considered the decision wrong, while 35% considered it correct (IRES 2025). As a result of the decision, the Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index downgraded Romania from the status of a flawed democracy to that of a hybrid regime, the only such country in the EU (Economist Intelligence Unit 2025). The Venice Commission also criticized the decision (Miron Reference Miron2025).

The radical decision of annulling the vote was followed by the indictment of Georgescu, accused of having manipulated the vote through an aggressive campaign conducted mainly on social media channels like Tik Tok. In 2025, the Romanian judiciary indicted him not for rigging the vote but for his older fascist and antisemitic statements and for having publicly promoted Marshall Ion Antonescu, the World War II leader who aligned Romania with Nazi Germany. On 26 February, the Prosecutor’s Office placed Georgescu under investigation and throughout 2025, the law enforcement gathered evidence against the former presidential candidate. On 2 July, he was indicted for right-wing propaganda, whereas on 15 September he was again indicted for attempts to initiate actions that run against the constitution (juridice.ro 2025; recorder.ro 2025).

Soured relations with the United States

Since 2004, successive Romanian presidents have tried to improve relations with the United States, which soured during 2025 (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2026). First, Romanian authorities were bitterly criticized by the American Vice-President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference in February. Vance used the annulment decision as a negative example to underscore the fragility of Romanian democracy and the difference between the United States and the EU in understanding fundamental values like freedom of speech, democracy, and censorship, a difference understood by Vance to place the EU at a net disadvantage (RFE/RL Romanian Service 2025).

On 2 May, Romania was excluded from the Waiver program. This measure, which annulled a decision of the Joe Biden administration, was part of the numerous anti-migration policies adopted by the Trump administration. Its timing, just two days before the first round of presidential elections were held in Romania, was criticized as possibly benefiting the far-right candidate Simion who, as Georgescu, criticized the EU and vocally supported Trump and his policies.

In October, the US administration withdrew some of the troops stationed in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, but not from Poland or the Baltic republics. The decision, which generated frustration, was part of a realignment of American focus away from Europe and NATO support. As a result of this ‘strategic reconfiguration’, around 700 troops from the 101^st Airborne Division’s 2^nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team was redeployed to Kentucky without replacement, leaving only some 1,000 troops on Romanian soil (Atlantic Council 2025).

Austerity measures, protests, and the appeal of sovereigntist parties

Romania’s economic situation was difficult at the beginning of 2025. The previous year, the country registered the largest budget deficit (9.3%) and the highest inflation rate (5.1%) in the EU, for the third consecutive year (European Commission 2026). In late July, the Bolojan cabinet approved the first of three austerity packages designed to balance the national budget. The packages included measures such as: a tax increase from 19% to 21% on all goods; a tax increase from 9% to 11% for food items, medicine, books, and energy; a tax increase of 10% for alcohol, benzene, and tobacco products; compulsory medical contribution for all those receiving pensions over 600 Euros; no salary and pension increase for government employees until end of 2026; limited hiring in the public administration sector; a reduction in student scholarships; and a reduction by 40% in subsidies allocated to political parties from the national budget (Carlugea Reference Carlugea2025). Note that, as of 2025, Romania had the second lowest income taxes in the EU. These austerity measures led to labor union protests, criticisms of the government by opposition parties, and efforts by the PSD, part of the ruling coalition, to distance itself from these unpopular measures.

Other developments

Dan’s victory in the presidential elections meant that the Bucharest mayoral seat remained vacant. Elections organized on 7 December 2025 brought Ciprian Ciucu (PNL, male, born 1978) into the position of Mayor of Bucharest. Ciucu served as Mayor of a Bucharest district no. 6 from 2020 to 2025.

Ion Iliescu died on 5 August at 95. A former communist official and collaborator of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Iliescu was sidelined in the 1980s. A major figure of the 1989 Revolution, he emerged as an alternative to Ceausescu trusted by Soviet leaders. Iliescu had graduated from the Soviet Union with a university degree. By stoking nationalist concerns and discrediting exiled politicians who returned to Romania after Ceausescu’s fall, Iliescu was able to secure the presidency in 1990. The 1991 Constitution turned Romania into a semi-presidential republic. Iliescu stood for re-election in 1992 and 2000, in defiance of constitutional provisions limiting presidential mandates to two in a lifetime. He was indicted but never sentenced for his role in the 1989 Revolution and the crimes perpetrated by the miners he encouraged to descend on Bucharest in 1990, 1991, and 1999 in the mineriade. Under his leadership, the former Communist Party transformed into the Social Democrat Party. In his last presidential mandate (2000–2004) Iliescu promoted Romania’s entry into NATO and the EU and created a presidential International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. He blamed Ceausescu, not communism, for Romania’s problems in the 1980s.

The year 2025 represented a return to (fragile) stability for Romania, after the controversy surrounding the 2024 vote which tarnished its international image and undermined public trust in mainstream parties and state institutions. The austerity measures adopted by the Bolojan cabinet eroded living standards and increased public support for sovereigntist parties. At the same time, Dan’s electoral victory over the far-right sovereigntist Simion brought a measure of moderation in what remains an unstable political system.