Hundreds of young people gathered on the afternoon of Monday, November 25, one day after the first round of the presidential elections, in Bucharest\u2019s Pia\u021ba Universit\u0103\u021bii at a protest against the first-placed candidate, independent C\u0103lin Georgescu.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protest began spontaneously through messages on WhatsApp, according to media reports. \u201cA legionary dictatorship threatens Romania,\u201d the call to protest read.<\/p>\n
Once in the central square, a symbolic given the massive student protests in favor of true democratization that took place there in the 1990s, the protesters began chanting slogans against Georgescu.<\/p>\n
C\u0103lin Georgescu<\/a>‘s controversial stances include questioning Romania’s NATO membership and praising both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu. When questioned in a Digi24 interview about his position on the war in Ukraine, Georgescu said Ukraine shouldn\u2019t be a concern and that the president\u2019s job is to take care of Romania.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents from all cities, join us to show that a Putin supporter cannot defeat us,\u201d said one protester.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two older men joined the young demonstrators and told them they supported them. Both said they are now retired, and one of them was a former political prisoner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worry when we see fewer and fewer young people around us. My daughter has also left. That\u2019s why you need to say: No, Mr. or Comrade Georgescu! Go back to Moscow, to Putin! Don\u2019t come here,\u201d the man said to the crowd, receiving applause, according to HotNews.ro<\/a>.<\/p>\n A few incidents took place during the evening. At one point, a counter-protester appeared among the crowd and began arguing with the young people but police quickly escorted him away to de-escalate the situation.<\/p>\n More than three and a half hours after the demonstration began, the protesters indicated that they would continue the protests in the following days: \u201cHere again tomorrow evening, so we won\u2019t have to leave the country.\u201d The protesters are also calling on political parties to unite \u201cagainst this common evil named C\u0103lin Georgescu.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the protest, young people in Romania are not of the same mind when it comes to the surprise candidate. Remus Stefureac, head of the INSCOP survey house, recently published<\/a> a profile of Georgescu\u2019s voters extracted from the survey conducted on election day. According to the data, 31% of young voters aged 18-24 voted for C\u0103lin Georgescu, in contrast to just 8% of voters aged over 65. Men and women showed no significant difference in their voting intention for Georgescu, despite his anti-abortion and anti-cesarian birth views.<\/p>\n