President Donald Trump has had his fair share of battles with the judiciary over court orders blocking his implementation of key policies. But right-wing politicians in NATO ally Romania are facing an even more cataclysmic reckoning with their judiciary, which has placed their presidential election in jeopardy.
After outsider candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round of elections in Romania’s 2024 election in a stunning upset, the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) canceled the second round and ordered a new election, alleging Russian interference. Georgescu was banned from running in the new elections, but the Ploiești Court of Appeal this week suspended the decision to cancel the first elections.
That move was then speedily reversed by the Romanian Supreme Court (ICCJ) and a judiciary council has since begun an investigation into the Court of Appeal judge, Alexandru Vasile, who ordered the resumption of the original elections. The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) began the investigation on Friday.