Προεδρικές εκλογές στη Ρουμανία: Ποιος είναι ο Καλίν Γκεοργκέσκου που θέλει να γίνει ο Ρουμάνος «Ντόναλντ Τραμπ»

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https://www.iefimerida.gr/kosmos/royman ... alnt-tramp

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Η μαλακία είναι μεταδοτική

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Τελικά ξεβρακώθηκε το ρωσοναζιστικό σχέδιο και πήγε σπίτι του ο πρακτορίσκος

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Romania Police Raid Houses After Vote Scrapped Over 'Irregularities'

Romanian police raided houses on Saturday, a day after the top court cancelled the presidential vote in an unprecedented development following allegations of Russian interference in favour of the far-right frontrunner.

The court's shock move, just before the presidential run-off, opens the way for a new electoral process to start from scratch in the EU and NATO member state bordering war-torn Ukraine.

A new government -- to be formed after last weekend's legislative elections that were won by the ruling Social Democrats but saw big far-right gains -- will set a new presidential election date.

The annulment comes after a spate of intelligence documents declassified this week by the presidency detailed allegations against far-right presidential frontrunner Calin Georgescu and Russia, including "massive" social media promotion and cyberattacks.

Police searched three houses in Brasov city in central Romania on Saturday as part of the investigation "in connection with crimes of voter corruption, money laundering, computer forgery," said a statement from the prosecutor's office.

It said the swoop targeted a person involved in the "illegal financing of the electoral campaign of a candidate for the presidency of Romania, through the use of sums of money," without naming Georgescu.

The prosecutor's office would not name the person at the heart of the operation either.

The investigations also concern the violation of the law on the prohibition of organisations and symbols of a fascist, racist or xenophobic nature, the statement added.

Little-known outsider Georgescu, who unexpectedly topped the first round of voting on November 24, was favourite to win the second round on Sunday against centrist pro-EU mayor Elena Lasconi, according to several polls.

But the documents drawn up for a top security council meeting after the first round of voting "revealed an aggressive promotional campaign, in violation of electoral legislation, and an exploitation of algorithms to increase the popularity of Calin Georgescu at an accelerated pace".

One TikTok user paid $381,000 to those involved in the promotion of Georgescu between October 24 and November 24, according to one of the documents.

The document identified that user as businessman Bogdan Peschir, who has compared his support for Georgescu to the world's richest man Elon Musk's backing of US president-elect Donald Trump.

Another declassified document said Romania was a "target for aggressive Russian hybrid actions", including cyberattacks.

More than 85,000 cyberattacks -- including "on election day" -- were identified, according to Romanian authorities.

Based on those claims, the constitutional court on Friday unanimously decided to annul the entire electoral process, saying it had been "marred... by multiple irregularities and violations of electoral legislation".

The United States said it had faith in Romania's institutions and called for a "peaceful democratic process".

Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on X branded the cancelation of the vote as an "attempt at rigging the outcome" and "denying the will of the people".

Georgescu, a 62-year-old former civil servant, called it "a formalised coup d'etat" and said democracy was "under attack".

His team on Saturday declined to comment on the raids, saying they "will not comment or provide answers until we have exact data".

A past admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the EU and NATO sceptic in recent days has reframed himself as "ultra pro-Trump," vowing to put Romania "on the world map" and cut aid for neighbouring Ukraine.

Romania's pro-EU President Klaus Iohannis said Friday that he would stay in his post until a new government can be formed to set a fresh presidential election date.

In last weekend's parliamentary elections, the governing pro-European Social Democrats won the legislative vote, but far-right parties secured a third of the ballots.

Since the 1989 fall of Communism, Romania has not seen such a breakthrough by the far-right banking on mounting anger over soaring inflation and Russia's war in Ukraine.

In a joint appeal on Wednesday, the Social Democrats and three other pro-EU parties -- together making up an absolute majority in parliament -- signed an agreement to form a coalition, promising "stability".

https://www.barrons.com/news/romania-po ... s-eba4d6fd

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In one of the unclassified documents, Romania's intelligence agency said Georgescu was massively promoted on social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid promotion. Georgescu has declared zero funds spent in the campaign.

The intelligence service also said access data for official Romanian election websites was published on Russian cyber crime platforms. The access data was probably procured by targeting legitimate users or by exploiting the legitimate training server, the agency said.

It added that it had identified over 85,000 cyber attacks which aimed to exploit system vulnerabilities.

Russia has denied any interference in Romania's election campaigns.

"The attacks continued intensively including on election day and the night after elections," the agency said in a declassified document.

"The operating mode and the amplitude of the campaign leads us to conclude the attacker has considerable resources specific to an attacking state."

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ro ... 024-12-04/

European Union orders TikTok to preserve data related to Romanian election

In an unprecedented move, President Klaus Iohannis ordered the release on Wednesday of the intelligence files that allege a sprawling network of thousands of social media accounts across platforms like TikTok and Telegram promoted Georgescu content.

The European Commission said it issued TikTok with a “retention order” demanding that it “freeze and preserve data” related to so-called systemic risks that the video-sharing platform's service could pose to “electoral processes and civic discourse” in the EU. The order also applies to any national election in the EU until March 31.

TikTok has “already been cooperating with the Commission and will continue to do so," the company said in a statement. "We look forward to establishing the facts in light of some of the speculation and inaccurate reports we have seen.”

The commission said TikTok must hang on to internal documents and information about the design and function of its systems that recommend content to users. It also has to preserve files on how it addresses the risk that fake accounts are used in a coordinated way to manipulate users.

Officials told a daily briefing in Brussels that the commission had received the Romanian intelligence files.

“I can confirm that we have received and we are currently working on these documents now,” commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement that, “This preservation order is a key step in helping investigators establish the facts and adds to our formal requests for information, which seek information following the declassification of secret documents yesterday.”

The commission is using the Digital Services Act to scrutinize TikTok, which many observers say played a big role in Georgescu's success in the first-round vote. The DSA is a wide-ranging set of regulations that took effect last year aimed at cleaning up big online platforms and protecting internet users, under threat of hefty fines.

“We have a tool at our disposal where we make sure that the very large online platforms have their role to play and make sure that their services are not misused to influence voters and to influence people,” Regnier said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/european-uni ... 1733583715

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