They denounce that Romania was the target of “aggressive Russian hybrid attacks” during the electoral campaign

The Romanian social democratic prime minister reaffirms his support for the conservative candidate Elena Lasconi for the second round of the presidential elections

Dec. 4 () –

The Security Council of Romania has reported that the country was the target of “aggressive Russian hybrid attacks” during the campaign for the first round of the presidential elections, according to a report declassified this Wednesday, a few days before the election is held this Sunday. second round of elections.

This Sunday the ultranationalist and eurosceptic candidate Calin Georgescu, also considered pro-Russian, faces the conservative Elena Lasconi, the second most voted during that day after winning by a slight margin over the social democratic prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, who has already ratified his support.

The report concludes that more than 85,000 computer attacks, as well as sabotage and information leaks against state infrastructure, were identified during the campaign and even on the night of the elections, Romanian media report.

Last week, the Security Council already publicly warned that it had been detected that Georgescu had benefited from social networks, especially TikTok, through coordinated accounts, algorithms and paid promotions.

The visibility of Georgescu, who declared that he had not spent funds during the campaign, increased significantly compared to the rest of the candidates, whom these platforms did recognize as candidates and his content, therefore, as required by Romanian electoral legislation, was filtered on great extent.

The report also recalls that over the last year, the Russian media “has been floating the idea that pro-Russian forces in Romania could obtain more than 30 percent of the votes in the legislative elections.”

One of the first to react to the content of this documentation has been the Romanian Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, who has ratified the support of the Social Democrats for Lasconi in the second round of the presidential elections this Sunday.

“Faced with this reality, I will support Elena Lasconi in the second round of the presidential elections,” he announced on Facebook.

Ciolacu has pointed out that this information reveals that Georgescu “used undeclared external financing during the electoral campaign”, “that there are work patterns that show the participation of state actors” and that “he artificially increased his exposure, evading the legal framework.”

This last statement comes hours after Ciolacu announced a pact between the pro-European and Atlanticist forces that have achieved representation in the legislative elections to stop the rise of far-right parties, which have already confirmed their support for Georgescu.