That was a surprise

Good lord! I had not even heard of Călin Georgescu until my very interesting and nice young waiter on Friday appealed eloquently to us to vote for him. 

A President who doesn't obey Washington or Berlin? Is it possible? 

No it is not.  

The media and the Americans will try very hard to prevent him winning but the majority of voters would certainly vote against him anyway. 

It's the economy, stupid.

Romanian politicians are happy to obey America and the European Union, which is very good for attracting foreign investors, but many Romanians are not. I knew this from talking to taxi drivers who blame America in part or wholly for the war in Ukraine. I risk sounding like Nancy Pelosi saying 'Donald Trump is - not- going to be President of the United States' but a man who says pre-war mystic fascist Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was a great Romanian will not be President of Romania.

It is not exactly democratic that he did so well because another sovereignist candidate was disqualified on dubious grounds and that he was in trouble with the law for praising Codreanu. What happened to free speech in Romania? 

I wonder if the politicians will listen to the opinions of the 30 percent of the population who back the sovereignists or (more likely) treat them with the contempt Romanians usually have for peasants and the working class.

It's a protest vote and just possibly people in the incoming administration in Washington will hear the protest and take it into account.