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Călin Georgescu

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(Redirected from Calin Georgescu) Romanian politician and agronomist (born 1962)
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Călin Georgescu
Georgescu in 2024
Executive director of the United Nations Global Sustainable Index Institute in Geneva/Vaduz
In office
2015–2016
President of the European Research Centre for the Club of Rome
In office
2013–2015
Special Rapporteur in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
In office
2010–2012
Personal details
Born (1962-03-26) 26 March 1962 (age 62)
Bucharest, Romanian People's Republic
Political partyIndependent (since 2022)
Other political
affiliations		AUR (2020–2022)
Alma materUniversity of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest
Occupation

Călin Georgescu (Romanian pronunciation: [kəˈlin dʒe̯orˈdʒesku]; born 26 March 1962) is a Romanian far-right politician, agronomist, and prominent conspiracy theorist, who worked in the field of sustainable development. Georgescu was appointed the executive director of the United Nations (UN) Global Sustainable Index Institute in Geneva and Vaduz for the period 2015–2016. Prior to that, he served as President of the European Research Centre for the Club of Rome (2013–2015).

Georgescu is running as an independent candidate in the 2024 Romanian presidential election; his views have been described as pro-Russian, anti-NATO, and far-right, and he has been described as an ultranationalist, far-right populist, and extremist. Despite being considered a fringe candidate polling around 5%, he ultimately won 23% and received the most votes in the first round. According to documents provided by the Romanian security services, his campaign used undeclared funds of over €1,000,000 and election infrastructure experienced cyber-attacks believed to originate from "a state actor". The Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the results of the first round on 6 December. It did not provide a reason for the cancellation.

Early life and education

Georgescu was born in the Cotroceni neighborhood of Bucharest, the son of Scarlat Georgescu and Aneta Georgescu, née Popescu. He graduated in 1986 from the Nicolae Bălcescu Institute of Agronomy in Bucharest and obtained his Ph.D. in pedology from the same institute in 1999.

Diplomatic career

In 1991, Georgescu became head of the Office for the Environment of the Romanian Parliament. In 1992, he became an adviser to the then Minister of Environment Marcian Bleahu. He was Secretary General in the Ministry of Environment from 1997 to 1998.

Georgescu acted as the executive director of the National Centre for Sustainable Development in Bucharest from 2000 to 2013, during which time he coordinated the development of two versions of the National Sustainable Development Strategy, in line with the guidelines of the European Strategy for Sustainable Development. He was President of the European Research Centre for the Club of Rome from 2013 to 2015 and the Executive Director of the UN Global Sustainable Index Institute in Geneva and Vaduz from 2015 to 2016.

Georgescu has worked as the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and hazardous waste, and represented Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Political career

Georgescu was proposed as prime minister by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians in 2020 and 2021. Georgescu ran for president in the 2024 Romanian presidential election. Among his campaign stances were strengthening Romania's defence capabilities, diversifying Romania's diplomatic relations, increased support for farmers, promoting energy and food production, and reducing dependency on imports. He obtained the most votes at 22.95% in the first round of voting on 24 November, and advanced to a runoff scheduled on 8 December along with Elena Lasconi.

On 6 December 2024, the Constitutional Court of Romania cancelled the presidential elections, which will have to be rescheduled for a later date. The court did not provide a reason for the cancellation. Russia meddling with the Romanian elections has been mentioned as the foremost reason.

Political views

In November 2020, Georgescu stated that dictator Ion Antonescu and Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom "the national history lived, through them speaks and spoke the national history and not through the lackeys of the globalist powers that lead Romania today temporarily". He has also said that the Romanian revolution was used by the West to steal Romanian resources, and has multiple times promoted COVID-19 misinformation.

Several media articles criticized Georgescu for his pro-Russian statements, describing him as a Russophile and demonstrating how he used his social media platforms to spread information sourced to Russian state media. This also resulted in him leaving the AUR in 2022. Georgescu also criticised the European Union and NATO, and described the latter's ballistic missile defense shield in Deveselu as a "shame of diplomacy", and called it a "disgrace". He has also praised Russian president Vladimir Putin as "a man who loves his country". He said that he wanted to engage with, rather than challenge, Russia, because "Security comes from dialogue, not confrontation". Speaking of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014, Georgescu said: "The situation in Ukraine is clearly manipulated, with the goal of provoking a conflict destined to financially help the military-industrial complex of USA." Georgescu has also pledged to end military aid to Ukraine if he is elected president.

Georgescu does not believe in the human Moon landing. In a podcast, he also mentioned that carbonated juices contain nanochips, which "enter you like into a laptop", and considers climate change "a global scam", which "has nothing to do with reality".

TikTok scandal

Georgescu campaign used social media, especially TikTok, where his videos had more than 52 million views in a four day period and attracted the attention of younger voters. The Romanian Supreme Council of National Defence said that TikTok had given Georgescu "preferential treatment" leading to his "massive exposure". TikTok said Georgescu was treated the same as other candidates and "was subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions".

On 4 December 2024, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis declassified and published Romanian intelligence agency documents, which stated that Georgescu growth was "not organic" and was funded and coordinated by a "state actor". Iohannis declassified the documents at the request of the intelligence agencies. The documents said that Georgescu's advertising campaign slogan "Balance and verticality" was in its methodology identical to an earlier TikTok campaign slogan "Brother near brother" purchased by Russian actors and targeting Ukraine. Romanian media said that the person who funded the Georgescu campaign was a right-wing supporter named Eugen Sechila. The documents said that the campaign was coordinated through Telegram and Discord channels, where advice was given to participants on how to bypass TikTok security mechanisms, avoid geoblocking and bans for comment spam. One involved account "bogpr" identified as registered for a Romanian citizen Bogdan Peșchir, made donations to other TikTok accounts of over €1 million, including €381,000 to accounts directly involved in promoting Georgescu campaign. The South African advertising company FA Agency contacted a number of TikTok influencers and offered €1,000 for promoting Georgescu videos. In total, over 25,000 accounts were involved in promoting these videos. The Constitutional Court annulled the results of the election on 6 December. It did not provide a reason for the cancellation. Georgescu's opponent, Elena Lasconi, said "The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting".

The Romanian investigative outlet Snoop wrote that the TikTok campaign was funded by the National Liberal Party, which hired the firm Kensington Communication to run the campaign. Kensington Communications sent a script to 130 influencers for use through a newly established platform called FameUp.

Personal life

Georgescu is married and has three children. He has two TikTok accounts, one of which accumulated more than 1.7 million likes before it was deleted at the time of the presidential election in 2024, while the other has 3.7 million likes and 274,000 followers, growing in the weeks prior to the election. He is also a judo practitioner.

Publications

References

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