By Danny Tye & Răzvan Ion
Romania has been plunged into political turmoil, following the surprise victory of Călin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential elections held last weekend. Georgescu, a 62-year-old far-right populist with a background in agronomy and environmental politics, won 22.9% of the vote. In a shocking blow for Romania’s governing Social Democratic party, he knocked incumbent Prime Minister and pollsters’ favourite Marcel Ciolacu out of the race.
Illustration by GAY45.
Georgescu’s campaign has centred on anti-Western, nationalist themes; in particular, he has expressed skepticism towards Romania’s position within NATO and called for a reduction in Romanian support to neighbouring Ukraine, while expressing sympathy for Russia.
On social issues, Georgescu has actively championed ‘traditional family values’, particularly during the failed 2018 referendum that sought to constitutionally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. GAY45 has previously reported on the rise of homonationalist movements in countries such as Georgia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, France and the USA, as well as the growth of LGBTQ+ individuals casting their votes for far-right parties. Georgescu’s election, bolstered by his large TikTok following, would represent the fall of another domino.
An expert on sustainable development, Georgescu acted as the executive director of Bucharest’s National Centre for Sustainable Development from 2000 to 2013 before intermittent stints at the UN, most recently as executive director of the UN Global Sustainable Index Institute in 2015 and 2016. Since then, he has dramatically shifted towards ultranationalism and far-right conspiracy theories. In 2020, after joining the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, he described bathing in cold water as ‘the best vaccine against coronavirus’, going on this year to deny the existence of Covid entirely and claim that ‘the only real science is Jesus Christ.’
Georgescu was investigated by prosecutors in 2022 after expressing support for Romania’s WW2-era Nazi collaborators, including wartime PM Ion Antonescu – responsible for 400,000 deaths – who he described as a hero. More recently, Georgescu has garnered public condemnation from Romanian TV star Andreea Marin for bizarrely describing the cesarean section as a ‘tragedy’ which ‘breaks the divine thread’. Queer issues, which have been hotly contested in the country in recent years, have not escaped Georgescu’s conspiratorial eye. Interviewed on a podcast, he spoke of how his experience with the UN had opened his eyes to how homosexuality was a ‘psychological action’ of the world’s ruling cabal, seeking to ‘reduce the world population’ by manipulating the minds of young people.
Georgescu’s first-round victory, coming after meagre polling results, has already led to allegations of electoral fraud, suggestions of Russian involvement, and calls for a recount from the country’s Constitutional Court, as well as international media commotion. Nicu Ștefănuță, vice-president of the European Parliament and supporter of LGBT rights, described Georgescu as ‘a collective failure of the political class. We must stay on the European course. And the candidate who represents that is not Georgescu.’
Eugen Rădescu, an openly gay political scientist and professor at University of Bucharest said exclusively to GAY45 that Georgescu’s victory was a big shock, as the candidate had barely registered in opinion polls before the election. ‘The hard-right circle in Romania, much like its European counterpart, is united by a social layer that is weary and frustrated with dynamic democratic systems—yet uneducated and aggressive, uninterested in politics, but harsh and uniform in its stance. Romanians who have emigrated abroad, working in stable and genuine democracies, desire a fascist dictatorship back home. Isn’t that grim?’
Voting patterns reveal that a certain percent of self-identified LGBT+ voters supported the far-right in Romania—a trend that mirrors an alignment with far-right movements in Europe. Similar dynamics have emerged in countries like Italy, France, Austria, the USA and Germany, where LGBTQ+ individuals have been drawn to populist, right-wing parties despite their generally radical conservative social stances. This phenomenon also appears in the election of autocrats in Hungary and Slovakia, defying expectations and complicating the narrative of progressive unity within queer communities. GAY45 addressed this issue in an op-ed ahead of Austria’s elections last month.
The Austrian historian and writer Oliver Jens Schmitt, who has drawn attention to the resurgence of the far-right movement in Europe over the past two years defined the situation for DW: ‘An extremist movement of inexperienced young activists, yet prone to violence, is viewed sympathetically or secretly supported by parts of the establishment. Intellectuals and academics create an environment that fosters Orthodox ultranationalism and anti-Western sentiment.’ said Jens Schmitt . ‘All these parties are rooted in a national humus, at least in terms of their ideology, or rather: timid attempts to create an ideology. However, like most fascisms of the interwar period, they require less a precisely formulated programme than an effectiveness through their actions at the national level. Putin exploits the lack of political education among citizens and has an easy game in Romania, as well as in countries like Austria. He cooperates with politicians who lean towards Russia due to corruption, naivety, or ideological affinity.’
The situation for Romania’s queer population is conflicted and heavily influenced by the country’s religious background and political context. Deposed, nominally-communist dictator Ceausescu pushed an extreme natalist family policy – banning contraception and instigating mandatory monthly pregnancy tests to make illegal abortions almost impossible – which led to widespread deaths and child abandonment. With this came a crackdown on homosexuality; in 1968, Ceausescu revised the law which loosely prohibited open homosexuality to strictly ban all sex between men even in private. This law remained in place after the 1989 revolution, leaving Romania one of the few countries still prohibiting gay sex well into the 1990s.
Though acclaimed by Human Rights Watch in 2006 for its ‘exemplary progress’ in queer rights, the country has backslid into hegemonic queerphobia in the past five years. As well as the aforementioned attempt to constitutionally forbid non-heterosexual marriages in 2018, a ban on public discussion of homosexuality and gender identity was passed by the Senate in 2022, leading to condemnation and protests.
One activist who has made a name for himself staunchly defending the right to open queer expression is Florin Buhuceanu, leader of the campaign group Accept. After successfully raising a case in the ECHR against the Romanian state for its discriminatory policy towards same-gender couples in 2019, Buhuceanu has now turned his attention to politics. He is the first openly gay person to run for parliamentary election in Romania, putting himself forward for December’s elections as a candidate for liberal party REPER. Florin Buhuceanu, commented on the situation exclusive for GAY45: ‘This is a grave and imminent danger we must confront. I can clearly articulate a far more effective response to these threats from within Parliament, as the first openly gay Romanian politician standing for election on behalf of the young liberal party, REPER. It is the first pro-European political party that, a year ago, included the defence of family life for LGBT people in its political programme. The party has also forged pragmatic political alliances to support the first woman running for the presidency—someone uniquely positioned to defeat the fascist, pro-Putin candidate in these presidential elections.’ Speaking to RFI, he warned of ‘an increase in the extreme right and the ultra-populist zone, we have all kinds of problems that are clearly not well managed in society.’
While defending REPER’s progressive platform, including the policy promises of civil partnerships for queer couples, protection of abortion rights, and decriminalisation of drug use, Buhuceanu has nonetheless been critical of the party’s presidential candidate Elena Lasconi, a runner in the second round. When Lasconi expressed her discomfort with the notion of gay marriage last year, on which she later reneged, he described the gaffe as ‘an enormity that disqualifies any democratic politician’. Buhuceanu has rallied behind Lasconi as the only candidate left standing between Georgescu and presidential office, so it remains to be seen whether he will retain his critical voice, and prioritise advocacy for queer rights over his own political advancement. Along with the standoff between Georgescu and Lasconi, Buhuceanu’s potential success in the upcoming elections still leaves many questions unanswered for Romania’s sexual minorities.
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