Romania court upholds ban on far-right populist running for president

Romanian far-right populist Calin Georgescu has lost his appeal against a ruling barring him from participating in May's presidential election.

The Constitutional Court issued the final ruling on Tuesday afternoon after deliberating for two hours.

A large crowd who were gathered outside the court in Bucharest shouted "traitors" and "we are going nowhere".

The Central Electoral Bureau had earlier rejected Georgescu's candidacy for a rerun of the presidential election in May.

Georgescu had won the first round of last year's presidential vote, but it was annulled after intelligence revealed Russia had been involved in setting up almost 800 TikTok accounts backing him.

On Sunday, the election bureau said Georgescu's candidacy did not "meet the conditions of legality", as he "violated the very obligation to defend democracy".

Georgescu appealed that verdict the following day.

Many of the protesters outside the court had Romanian flags draped around their shoulders.

They chanted "Calin Georgescu is president" and "freedom", and condemned the judges as traitors. One woman had a sign that read "Stop dictatorship".

It took a while for news of the ruling upholding the ban to reach the crowd. When it did, there were loud "boos" directed at the judges inside.

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