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You can read about it, the decision just came out and it's public. Georgescu declared spending zero euros in funding while investigations found about 50m€ spent

by piva00 2y ago

You can read about it, the decision just came out and it's public. Georgescu declared spending zero euros in funding while investigations found about 50m€ spent. The Constitutional Court has determined election interference based on what they got, it's better to do a do-over rather than allow Russia interference in the democratic process. You can claim the slippery slope fallacy but given the potential catastrophe of allowing Russian interference I'll side with the CCR on this case.

aprilthird2021 2y ago
But we are wary of giving up fundamental democratic protections of our votes for the boogeyman of Russia. There will always be a Boogeyman. There won't always be free and fair elections. Campaign finance violations are serious. Why is the vote allowed to continue if they happen? Why is this not probed well before the election?
mariusor 2y ago
In fairness he can't declare funds that haven't passed directly through his campaign accounts. It's a transparent loop hole, but it needs to be patched, not used as post-factum evidence supporting wrong doing.
tsimionescu 2y ago
That would have been a good argument sometime while the campaign was still in progress. Once the votes were cast, any court would recognize this is a fait accompli. It's crazy to annull elections (a procedure which no law whatsoever, nor the Constitution, even mentions, it was invented wholesale by the CCR during their meeting today) based on campaign finance violations, even ones involving outside interference. What would have happened if the interference were discovered only next year? Would you have been ok with annuling the elections after the new president was already in office? This is no different whatsoever, after the first round was finished. I hated and feared CG as much as anyone, but this court decision is obviously crazy and undemocratic (as pointed out by the other candidate in the second round as well).
- throw_pm23 2y ago
  The supposed campaign on tiktok ran days before the election. It is remarkable for state organs to be able to act within a week or so. Annulling the election in this situation seems the right thing to do. A similar cancellation of results happened in Austria in 2016. A year later it indeed would have been too late.
  - tsimionescu 2y ago
    No, the supposed campaign started one month before the elections. It ramped up maybe in the last few days before the election. But you don't convince 2 million people to vote for a crazed maniac like CG in two days of manipulation.

by piva00 2y ago

aprilthird2021 2y ago

But we are wary of giving up fundamental democratic protections of our votes for the boogeyman of Russia. There will always be a Boogeyman. There won't always be free and fair elections. Campaign finance violations are serious. Why is the vote allowed to continue if they happen? Why is this not probed well before the election?

mariusor 2y ago

In fairness he can't declare funds that haven't passed directly through his campaign accounts. It's a transparent loop hole, but it needs to be patched, not used as post-factum evidence supporting wrong doing.

tsimionescu 2y ago

That would have been a good argument sometime while the campaign was still in progress. Once the votes were cast, any court would recognize this is a fait accompli. It's crazy to annull elections (a procedure which no law whatsoever, nor the Constitution, even mentions, it was invented wholesale by the CCR during their meeting today) based on campaign finance violations, even ones involving outside interference. What would have happened if the interference were discovered only next year? Would you have been ok with annuling the elections after the new president was already in office? This is no different whatsoever, after the first round was finished. I hated and feared CG as much as anyone, but this court decision is obviously crazy and undemocratic (as pointed out by the other candidate in the second round as well).

throw_pm23 2y ago
The supposed campaign on tiktok ran days before the election. It is remarkable for state organs to be able to act within a week or so. Annulling the election in this situation seems the right thing to do. A similar cancellation of results happened in Austria in 2016. A year later it indeed would have been too late.
- tsimionescu 2y ago
  No, the supposed campaign started one month before the elections. It ramped up maybe in the last few days before the election. But you don't convince 2 million people to vote for a crazed maniac like CG in two days of manipulation.