Decision to reject Georgescu's candidacy, taken by Constitutional Court with unanimous votes

The nine judges of the Constitutional Court (CCR) unanimously rejected on Tuesday the appeal filed by Calin Georgescu, upholding the decision of the Central Electoral Bureau to invalidate his candidacy in the presidential elections in May.In fact, the other appeals filed in connection with Georgescu's candidacy were also rejected unanimously."I want to tell you that all the appeals were rejected unanimously," said the president of the CCR, Marian Enache, upon leaving the courtroom.The Central Electoral Bureau's decision is final and binding.   ***   The decision was greeted with boos from his supporters, who were waiting for the decision at the Palace of Parliament, where the CCR is headquartered. People began shouting “thieves” and “freedom”.   Special security measures were taken for their demonstration, which began a few hours before the CCR meeting. Controls were intensified, fences were erected and gendarmes were present, for the first time, in the perimeter of the CCR meeting room. After the official announcement of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), the leader of AUR, George Simion, reacted harshly in a message on Facebook, criticizing the decision. “Shame! Shame! Shame! You will not defeat us! The Romanian people have already woken up! And they will be victorious! CG (Calin Georgescu),” Simion wrote.   MP Anamaria Gavrila leader of the POT, had a first reaction after Tuesday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court of Romania, which upheld the decision of the Central Electoral Bureau to prevent Calin Georgescu from entering the presidential race, and claims that “with the illegal cancellation of the presidential elections” in 2024, “a horrifying system has shown its fangs and has been devouring our democracy and freedom for over three months.”   “These judges have created an extraordinarily terrible, difficult, strange precedent for our country, that precedent of judging by conscience,” the POT leader added.   USR leader Elena Lasconi said she hopes that Tuesday’s decision by the Constitutional Court in the case of Calin Georgescu will be “just a first step”, as he “must be held criminally accountable for all the atrocities he is accused of in recent months, and the institutions that have been brought to their knees by the wave of disinformation must be lifted, made credible again”.   “Our democracy is fragile, and such a decision should remain an exception, not the rule. If we want to restore trust in our institutions, we must ensure that they function with integrity and consistency, not in a way that fuels uncertainty and suspicion. What has been done has been done, and now we must focus on the future,” Elena Lasconi said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.   A reaction also came from MP Victor Ponta, an independent candidate in the May presidential elections, but who endorsed Georgescu . “The fight for Romania and for Romanians never stops! We must never give up! We must never despair! In the end, with God’s help, we will win,” Ponta wrote on Facebook.   Calin Georgescu reacted after his candidacy was banned by the BEC, and then by the CCR. He accused he was a victim of the system, and how he bothered the European Union. He also mentioned the classic anti-system message and how the system banned him. In the last part of his speech, he touched on the religious part in which he made biblical comparisons and mentioned devils, Hell, but he also questioned the COVID-19 pandemic, about which he said that “in the so-called pandemic, the first experiment was made when they locked us in our homes, brought the army out into the streets and banned our faith, churches and burials”.   Although it is rumored that AUR would prepare lists of signatures to launch his leader George Simion in the presidential race, allegedly endorsed by Georgescu, the latter did not mention a single person for his voters to vote for in the May elections. “If you want to support any person by signing new candidate lists, please do so as your conscience dictates,” he said. He also claimed that his “mission” had been accomplished, because he had “exposed the demon in all its hideousness.”