Messiah interrupted

Romania's dear, beloved president Călin Georgescu has been arrested. He was hauled out of morning traffic by officers from organised crime while apparently heading to, of all things, a swimming pool. Of course, he's not really Romania's president. He appeared from relative obscurity to win the first round of a presidential election in November 2024 before the constitutional court cancelled the whole thing. But to a certain kind of Romanian, Georgescu has been the country's rightful president ever since, denied his throne by an unholy conspiracy involving Brussels, NATO, George Soros, and (probably) Elvis Presley, who is alive and well and working as a postman in North Wales.

This time (Georgescu is already accused of plotting a coup that never happened) is under investigation for fraud, specifically an advance-fee swindle (the Nigerian prince email, basically). One businessman says he handed over 1.1 million euros for a (much larger) credit that never arrived. Prosecutors claim that some of the money went towards Georgescu's 2024 presidential campaign. Officers searching his house in Mogoșoaia, north of Bucharest, reportedly found 5,000 euros. For a man the Kremlin is often accused of bankrolling, such an amount of petty cash is a bit disappointing.

There is no doubt that the cancellation of the 2024 election was dubious. Very little evidence for any wrongdoing has ever been made public, and the millions who voted for Georgescu have a genuine grievance. I have always maintained that he should have been defeated at the ballot box. His opponent in the cancelled second round, Elena Lasconi, had every chance of beating him. The real tragedy however is that Georgescu's supporters have used their legitimate complaint to massage the ego of their messiah, who tells them that water vibrates, that agriculture (done the old fashioned way, with shovels and back-breaking manual labour) is the future, and that Romania's interwar legionaries were Christian martyrs, not scumbag fascists. 

This evening, outside the police station where the messiah was being held, a few of the faithful gathered. George Simion, who inherited most of these voters, announced on Facebook that 'Romania is a dictatorship!!!!', the four exclamation marks presumably standing in for a total lack of irony. 

Georgescu may yet be cleared of all of charges. Stranger, worse men have won the first round of presidential elections. But if you've spent the past two years insisting that this bizarre little man is Romania's saviour, today would be a very good day to have a serious word with yourself.