Calin Georgescu, a far-right populist candidate who won the first round of Romania’s canceled presidential election last year, was taken into custody for questioning by the country’s top prosecutors on Wednesday.
His communications team said on Facebook that Georgescu was stopped in traffic on his way to submit his new candidacy for the presidency when he was “taken in for questioning at the General Prosecutor’s Office.”
The country’s prosecutors said Wednesday that authorities raided 47 addresses of people and associations connected to Georgescu, Reuters reported. Prosecutors said the allegations against them included “false statements regarding the sources of financing” of an electoral campaign, illegal possession of weapons and initiating or establishing an organization “with a fascist, racist or xenophobic” character. Authorities searched the home of Georgescu’s campaign manager earlier this month.
Georgescu said on Facebook that authorities “are looking to invent evidence to justify the theft of the elections and to do anything to block my new candidacy for the presidency.” He called on supporters to attend a protest on Saturday in Bucharest.
Georgescu, a staunch critic of NATO and Western support for Ukraine, has sparked controversy in the past for describing Romanian fascist and nationalist leaders from the 1930s and 1940s as national heroes, according to the AP.
He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past as “a man who loves his country,” and has called Ukraine “an invented state.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
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