Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) leader George Simion wants to annul the elections. Photo: The Guardian

Despite conceding defeat when the final results came in, Simion said the evening of May 20 he would challenge the elections, using all “legal, domestic, and international means”.

“We are not defeated, we are not giving up, no one has defeated us,” he said.

Simion repeated he only ran for president after Călin Georgescu was pushed out and asked him to run.

“Out of respect for all those who put the stamp on us, I announce that we will not leave things as they wanted. We will challenge the election of Nicușor Dan at the CCR for exactly the same reasons why they annulled the December 6 elections,” said Simion.

Simion said he congratulated Dan because he loves Romania and did not want “bloodshed to justify chaos”.

The populist politician demanded the withdrawal of all the accusations made against Georgescu and added “paid influencers were bought to show their support for Nicușor Dan with amounts between €200,000 and €300,000”.

“The CCR must comply with the same jurisprudence. If our request is rejected, it is yet another proof that this system has staged a coup d’état”, he said.

“Out of respect for the millions of supporters, I am forced to take these steps,” he added.

“The fraud was at the level of adding extra votes for my opponent, to the influence of these state and non-state actors,” he said.

On May 18, Pavel Durov, owner of social media app Telegram, fed the dispute by sharing on his personal channel he had been pressured by the French government to influence the election outcome in Romania.

Durove wrote a Western European government had approached Telegram asking them to silence conservative voices in Romania ahead of the presidential elections.

“I flatly refused”, Durov said. “Telegram will not restrict the freedoms of Romanian users or block their political channels.”

“You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying democracy. You can’t ‘fight election interference’ by interfering with elections”, Durov added. “You either have freedom of speech and fair elections — or you don’t. And the Romanian people deserve both.”

Durov continued, “This spring at the Salon des Batailles in the Hôtel de Crillon, Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked me to ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections. I refused. We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe.”

Last summer, Durov was arrested in France on allegations Telegram was being used by organised crime gangs for drug trafficking, child pornography, fraud and money laundering.

On May 19, Durov opened up about the arrest, saying, “French foreign intelligence confirmed they met with me — allegedly to fight terrorism and child porn. In reality, child porn was never even mentioned. They did want IPs of terror suspects in France, but their main focus was always geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine.”

He added, “Since 2018, Telegram has fought child abuse in many ways: content fingerprint bans, dedicated moderation teams, NGO hotlines, and daily transparency reports on banned content — all verifiable. Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic.”

After Simion announced his move to annul the Romanian elections, Durov reacted he was ready to come and testify about the subject. Simion had said he wanted Durov to testify about everything in front of a Romanian court.

Reacting to the accusations by Durov, the French diplomatic services said they were “completely unfounded allegations”.

“France categorically rejects these allegations and calls on everyone to exercise responsibility and respect for Romanian democracy”, France Diplomacy said on X.

“The first round of the Romanian presidential elections last December was sovereignly annulled by the competent Romanian authorities following very real digital and financial interference from actors linked to Russia”, the French foreign ministry claimed, despite there being little evidence for the claims.

“Subsequent investigations by Romanian authorities and the European Commission later confirmed the seriousness of these interferences, including regarding the manipulation of the TikTok algorithm”, the ministry added. The National Liberal Party (PNL) paid for the campaign.

The Paris foreign ministry called the recent accusations against France “a diversionary manoeuvre from the real threats of interference targeting Romania” and called on all Romanian political actors “to exercise responsibility and defend democracy”.

France has been remarkably involved with the elections in Romania.

Former vice-president of the European Commission Thierry Breton had said Romania was justified in annulling its presidential election due to alleged Russian interference.

He added “we” Europeans should be willing to do something similar in Germany if similar interference occurs, something for which US Vice President JD Vance later criticised him

One week after the elections, Renew Europe President Valérie Hayer, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron, told French TV station Franceinfo she would “do everything on the ground” to ensure that Romania’s next president was “pro-European”. This caused opponents to accuse her of foreign interference.

Despite the heavy clash with France, some observers said they think Simion’s actions were more internally focussed.

Dionis Cenușa, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and expert on Eastern European politics, said on X Simion’s likely goal is to weaken the legitimacy of President-elect Dan.

“A discredited presidential mandate could make it difficult for Dan to cohabit with the existing governing coalition, leading to early elections that would benefit Simion-AUR,” said Cenușa.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in its report that in the repeat presidential election, “fundamental freedoms of assembly and association were respected”.

“However, defamatory rhetoric, biased media, and persistent inauthentic behaviour online, alongside regulatory gaps and fragmented responses by institutions, limited voters’ opportunity to make an informed choice and impacted public trust”, said the OSCE.

Their observation mission found “that technical preparations for the second round were professional and efficient, despite a continued lack of transparency in the work of the election administration.”

The observers said the legal framework regulates key aspects of the electoral process.

However, “the rules on campaigning, campaign financing, and media coverage are ambiguous or lack sufficient detail, sometimes leading to inconsistent interpretation by political parties and candidates as well as a lack of oversight and transparency,” it said.

They cited political materials lacking official labelling, broadcasters airing unmarked election-related content, and uncertainties about what activities were legally allowed when supporting candidates during the official campaign period.

OSCE PA Special Coordinator Lucie Potůčková said there was a “need for continued work on the complex electoral framework, in accordance with OSCE commitments and international standards.”