Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta joined the race for May's presidential election re-run on Wednesday as the hard right worked to ensure they had a candidate in the contest after the ban on pro-Russian Calin Georgescu threw the vote wide open.
Romania is set to repeat its two-round presidential election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling in Georgescu's favour, denied by Moscow and Georgescu.
Cancelling the ballot placed the European Union and NATO state at the centre of a dispute between Europe and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over free speech and suppressing political opponents.
With the hard right scrambling before Saturday's deadline to replace Georgescu, who had been leading the opinion polls, Ponta, a former Social Democrat Party leader who has moved to the right in the past year, could pick up votes from across the political spectrum.
"Victor Ponta will steal some votes from the left and the ultranationalists," said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.
"He aims to prove to U.S. conservative lobbyists that they have an alternative to Georgescu, one more experienced and reasonable."
Romania's president has a semi-executive role which includes chairing the council that decides on military aid and defence spending.
They can also veto EU votes that require unanimity, making the role particularly important at a time when the bloc is trying to increase defence spending and develop its Ukraine strategy as the U.S. works towards brokering a peace deal.
The hard right meanwhile tried to ensure that at least one of their number would be put to the voters. Georgescu himself has stopped short of endorsing a replacement.
George Simion, leader of Romania's second largest party, the Alliance of Uniting Romanians, and Anamaria Gavrila, the leader of the Young People Party, said in a joint statement they would both submit candidacies to the central election bureau to ensure at least one of them gets accepted.
"Once our candidacies are definitively accepted, one of us will withdraw," Gavrila said in the statement with Simion after meeting Georgescu. "We must give all chances to this (ultranationalist) movement."
All candidacies need to be validated by the election bureau.
SECOND ROUND
Simion is under investigation for inciting violence after Georgescu was barred. He says the investigation is an attempt to associate him with a violent protest he did not attend.
Neither Simion nor Gavrila have made overtly pro-Russian statements such as those of Georgescu. But all three hard right parties in parliament voted against a law that enables Romania to shoot down drones breaching its airspace - something which has happened repeatedly as Russia attacks Ukraine across the river Danube from Romania.
Analysts say that if Simion's bid is accepted, he has a good chance of reaching the second round. There he could face Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of capital Bucharest, who had been showing as Georgescu's main contender in some of the polls.
Ponta, who resigned as prime minister in November 2015, said he backed what he called the "radical change" taking place in the U.S. and courted voters with an ultranationalist leaning - while also backing the country's role in the EU and NATO.
"Power must be returned to the people, taken back from systems, organisations, and parties that have seized it over the years," he said as he launched his bid. "I believe that only through this change can we have a future both in Romania and in Europe."
Crin Antonescu, a centrist backed by the three parties in the ruling coalition, is also running for the presidency.
