Fear and anger mount as 'battle for the soul of Romanian democracy' looms

The Romanian village of Poeni has a couple of shops, a kebab grill and a pack of stray dogs.

It also has a fair few voters who wanted a far-right candidate to become president.

Poeni, just over an hour's drive from the capital, is not alone in that.

Last November, Calin Georgescu – who admires Vladimir Putin and is no fan of Nato – came from the extremist fringe to win the first round of Romania's presidential election with 23% of the vote.

In Poeni he did even better, with 24%.

Then the constitutional court scrapped the entire election in an unprecedented move, citing intelligence that Georgescu's online campaign had been boosted by Russia.

In Poeni, a young voter called those claims "lies", angry at the cancelled vote. "They should have let him run to see what happens," Maria argues.

A new ballot will be held in May but Georgescu has been barred from participating.

In Bucharest, supporters who took to the streets yelled that the judges were destroying democracy. A handful clashed briefly with police, who used tear gas.

Now nationalist politician George Simion has stepped into the race and is polling strongly instead.

Many Romanians fear their country's core European values, and its global alliances, are still in danger.

"We are in the middle of a battle of ideas. We don't have options here," is how one democracy activist describes the mood. "The fight is now."

In Poeni village there's less talk of values and of Russian meddling, more about the money in their pockets. Or rather the lack of it.

By the side of the main road, where the traffic alternates between heavy trucks and horses and carts, men buy charred chunks of kebab and pensioners chat on dusty benches.

A metal public phone box is bent out of shape, its sign dangling as it probably has for years.

Incomes here are small, prices are climbing and life is tough as in much of Romania.

"I want Georgescu to straighten everyone out. They tricked us. They promised us more pension money," a middle-aged woman speaks quietly at first, then becomes bolder. "The others have done nothing for us here!"

In the village store, Ionela is just as disenchanted.

"Young people finish college here and can't get work, so they go abroad. That isn't normal. We need our young people to have places here to work," she complains from behind the shop counter.

Millions of Romanians work elsewhere in the EU and send money home to their families. In Poeni you can see where some of that ends up, in all the half-done new homes.

Ionela's whole family voted for Georgescu. He promised to cut taxes, she thinks, but she doesn't seem to have registered his far-right ideology.

A man who's praised extremist figures from Romania's past, he's now under investigation for suspected links to a group with "fascist, racist or xenophobic characteristics".

Emerging after questioning, the politician was filmed giving a fascist-style salute.

Other villagers in Poeni did see that and do know all about the murky characters Georgescu has been linked to.

On hearing his name, one pensioner grabs her crutch and wields it like a machine gun, shouting that he is dangerous.

Another told me people were suspicious of someone who surged to prominence from nowhere and of his focus on sovereignty over economic sense.

"He tells us we don't need Europe to help us with money. So how are we going to live? Let's face it: Europe feeds us!" she says.

Romania's vote has become the topic of talk far beyond the streets of Poeni, or even Bucharest.

When US Vice President JD Vance shocked Europe with a speech in Munich, claiming that the EU's greatest threat came from within and not from Russia, he cited Romania several times.

He declared that the country's election had been cancelled on "flimsy suspicions" under "enormous pressure" from the EU. Then Elon Musk slammed the court's move as "'crazy" on X.

Moscow would have enjoyed that.

Russia's external intelligence agency came out in full agreement with the US that the "liberal mainstream" in Europe was suppressing dissent.

This from an authoritarian regime.

"It's the new world we are living in. It's Maga ideology. They try to find partners and their partners are far-right parties in all Europe," is how journalist Ion Ionita sees the US-Russia alignment.

To him, annulling the presidential elections was not only constitutional but justified.

"We are living through a hybrid war, democracy is under pressure," he argues. The threat is real.

But Romania, which borders Ukraine and hosts a big Nato base, now has to deal with US hostility too.

"It's a dramatic change. America is our ally, the biggest one, and the most important security provider for Romania," Ion Ionis points out. "We need this partnership to go further and to be stronger.

"People are worried."

For Florin Buhuceanu the dispute isn't only political – it's personal.

His Bucharest flat, a modernist gem, is a mini museum "dedicated to gay memory".

On one wall there's a large photograph from the 1930s of three gay men under arrest. In the next room is a wooden cabinet that once displayed Romanian fascist-era memorabilia in an antique store. Now it contains pictures of gay icons.

Romania only decriminalised homosexuality in 2001.

"No state museum would take such donations," Florin says, so he and his partner display the exhibits at home for invited guests.

A prominent LGBT activist, he's had so many threats in the heat of this election campaign that the security services have warned him to be careful.

Even with Georgescu disappearing as swiftly as he appeared, the atmosphere is febrile.

George Simion, now considered a frontrunner, has been investigated after calling for election officials to be "skinned alive" for barring Georgescu from the race.

He describes his nationalist AUR as a "patriotic party of conservative essence" whose pillars are "Faith, Nation, Family and Freedom."

LGBT rights group Mozaiq has warned of a surge in anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic rhetoric in recent weeks. It had to alert police after social media messages urging attacks on its office.

So Florin Buhuceanu fears his country is being thrown back to the past.

"Before 2001, it was absolutely impossible for us to breathe. Now we hear again and again the same rhetoric," he says.

Worse still, the US, Russia and the Romanian far right now coincide.

"It's obvious that our rights are fragile and the world is regrouping, so we have to continue this battle," the activist warns. "It's not just for our community. It's for the soul of Romanian democracy."