[Text/Observer Network Qi Qian] On April 11 local time, former Romanian presidential candidate Cling Georgeescu said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson's program that NATO wanted to "launch World War III from Romania."

At the age of 62, Georgeescu, as an independent candidate with far-right leanings and labeled as "pro-Russian" and "anti-NATO," has expressed doubts about the necessity of NATO and the EU. In last November's election, he unexpectedly ranked first with 22.95% of the vote in the first round. However, the Romanian side declared the results invalid and banned Georgeescu from participating in the election.

According to the interview video and "Russia Today" (RT) reports, Georgeescu stated that he was banned from running for office because of his anti-war stance.

Telling Carlson, Georgeescu said that NATO wanted to "launch...World War III from Romania." He pointed out that "the largest NATO military base is located in Romania," and Romania shares a 612-kilometer-long border with Ukraine.

On the 11th, Georgeescu accepted Carlson's interview Video screenshot

"In this case, Romania is, of course, an asset for the EU and French President Macron to wage war," Georgeescu claimed. "They want to turn NATO into an offensive force," and "stir up wars." He added: "My position is exactly against them. All my campaign activities focused on peace. They immediately became alert...because they need war."

Georgeescu continued, "The majority of Romanians oppose any intervention and participation in war."

He continued to accuse the "globalist mafia" of depriving him of the right to run for president. He further claimed that those who prohibited him from participating in the election are the same people who tried to use similar smear tactics to destroy US President Trump's candidacy.

This is not the first time that Georgeescu has proposed the view that "NATO will launch a war using Romania's bases."

According to US political news website (Politico), in January this year, Georgeescu said in an interview that the EU wanted to "control" NATO before Trump took office and used military bases in Romania to attack Russia, pushing for World War III.

According to RT, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and has since been expanding its MK Air Base in the east of the country, on the west coast of the Black Sea. The base is now the largest NATO base in Europe. Russia described the MK base as an "anti-Russian" base and warned that it would be one of the first targets for retaliatory strikes in the event of military conflict.

In March this year, Georgeescu was banned from participating in the presidential election Visual China

Last November, in the first round of voting in Romania's presidential election, Georgeescu "unexpectedly" ranked first with 22.95% of the vote. This pre-election "outsider" was seen by outsiders as a "pro-Russian" candidate, who had expressed doubts about the necessity of NATO and the EU.

The person behind him in the first round of voting, Elena Lascau, chairman of the Save Romania Union Party, and current Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party candidate Marcel Ciorbu, were both pro-European. Reuters pointed out in December last year that if Georgeescu ultimately won, it would overturn Romania's politics and possibly weaken the country's pro-Western stance.

The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of government, responsible for most domestic affairs; the President, on the other hand, has dominant power in foreign affairs, military, and security. According to Romanian election law, if no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round of voting, the top two candidates will compete for the presidency in a second round of voting held on December 8.

The Romanian government did not accept this result and instead accused Russia of interfering in the election, charging that the short video application TikTok was "suspected of violating rules" during the election period and requesting EU intervention for investigation. Russia described this accusation as "completely groundless." TikTok also refuted this. However, ultimately, the Romanian Constitutional Court canceled the results of the first round of the presidential election last December. The entire election process will restart in May this year.

After the Romanian Constitutional Court canceled the voting results, a series of domestic and foreign political crises erupted in the country.

Domestically, the then Romanian President Johnnes, who promoted the cancellation of the election results, faced impeachment by parliament, and he announced his resignation as president in February. Large numbers of Georgeescu supporters held multiple protest events. At the same time, this chaos attracted the attention of the Trump administration, with Musk and US Vice President Vance criticizing the Romanian government for "suppressing freedom of speech and democracy."

On March 9 local time, the Central Election Commission (BEC) of Romania announced that Georgeescu was banned from participating in the presidential election re-vote in May. This move sparked strong dissatisfaction among his supporters, causing riots in Bucharest, the capital of the country.

This article is an exclusive article by Observer Network and cannot be reproduced without permission.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7492256655573385769/

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