The Romanian electoral commission excluded a second far-right candidate from the presidential race on Saturday.
The commission rejected the candidacy of 49-year-old Diana Sosoaca without providing detailed reasons.
Last November, another far-right candidate, Calin Georgescu, won the first round of the Romanian presidential elections. The Constitutional Court annulled Georgescu’s result due to alleged Russian interference. The elections will be re-run on 4 May without the 62-year-old Georgescu, whose candidacy was denied last week by the electoral commission and the Constitutional Court in Bucharest.
Sosoaca, an MEP, saw her candidacy struck out despite her theatrical submission with boxing gloves on Thursday, declaring she would “fight the system.” The reason for Sosoaca’s exclusion wasn’t given on Saturday, but she had already been barred last November.
Related News
- ECHR rejects appeal against Romanian presidential election annulment
- Romania's presidential election rescheduled for May
- Romania's Constitutional Court annuls presidential elections
Back then, the Constitutional Court ruled that her statements were against “democratic values” and posed a threat to Romania’s EU and NATO membership.
Leader of the small party S.O.S. Romania, Sosoaca is known for her pro-Russian and antisemitic stances. She responded to the decision on Facebook, claiming to have evidence that Romania isn’t a democracy and announced plans to appeal the decision.
Meanwhile, the electoral commission approved the candidacy of George Simion, another far-right politician.
Simion, leader of AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians), is now the most popular far-right candidate since Georgescu’s exclusion.
