ROMANIAN church leaders have urged calm after the annulment this month by top judges of their country’s presidential election.
“Political party representatives have gone to parishes to mobilise believers and stoke street protests against the Constitutional Court and other Romanian state institutions,” the Orthodox Church’s Patriarchate warned in a weekend statement.
“We appeal to priests, monks, and faithful from the Bucharest archdiocese and other dioceses not to get involved or participate in actions contrary to law and social peace.”
The appeal was published after the Court ordered that the “entire electoral process” be repeated, amid evidence that Russian interference had compromised its “validity and legitimacy”.
Bishops from Romania’s Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches also warned citizens against extremist groups and called on them not to be “indifferent to dangers lurking for our future”.
“The outcome will fundamentally determine the development of the rule of law, social conditions, and the enforcement of community rights”, the bishops said in a joint statement. “The future of our Churches’ uninterrupted service to the community requires that we all support a candidate capable of countering extremist political forces and promoting peaceful social coexistence.”
Romanians abroad had already begun voting in last Sunday’s run-off ballot, after the surprise first-round victory, on 24 November, of a far-Right candidate, Calin Georgescu, known for his pro-Russian sympathies.
The Constitutional Court delivered its judgment, however, after reports from Romanian intelligence agencies were declassified last week by President Klaus Iohannis, suggesting that the election result had reflected social-media campaigns orchestrated by a “state actor”.
Although far-Right parties also performed well in parallel parliamentary elections on 1 December, these were won by the Social Democratic party of Romania’s acting Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, who welcomed the court annulment as “the only correct decision”.
In a separate statement, the Bucharest Patriarchate restated its “unequivocal neutrality” in the elections (News, 6 December), but also reaffirmed its “strong commitment to Romania’s EU membership. . . The European Union is seen as a space of prosperity and cooperation among the peoples of Europe, whose founding fathers were profoundly rooted in Christianity.
“The Orthodox Church is strongly committed to Romania’s present and future, and consistently defends and promotes Christian and European democratic values for the benefit of the Romanian people.”
The European Commission has demanded information from X about the part that it played in the first-round presidential vote, which raised doubts about Romania’s stance as an EU and NATO member-state.
In a statement, the US State Department said that the election annulment had created an “unprecedented situation” for Romania’s “hard-earned democracy”, and that its citizens must “have confidence that their elections reflect the democratic will of the Romanian people, free of foreign malign influence”.