The country’s Central Electoral Bureau rejected his candidacy Sunday, saying Georgescu had violated Romania’s election rules while coming out of nowhere to win the first round of the presidential vote last November, partly on the back of a wildly successful TikTok campaign.

Romanian far-right populist Calin Georgescu has lost his appeal against a ruling barring him from participating in the country’s presidential election in May. The Constitutional Court issued the final ruling on Tuesday after deliberating for two hours,

Romanian conservative presidential candidate Călin Georgescu has been barred from participating in May’s rerun of the presidential election.

The Romanian constitutional court on Tuesday upheld a ban preventing the far-right candidate Călin Georgescu from participating in the country’s presidential election. The ruling, which is final, backed a decision by Romania’s electoral authority on Sunday to throw out Georgescu’s bid to run in May’s vote after he allegedly breached election rules.

Romania’s largest far-right party is scrambling to find a candidate after the independent front-runner it supported was barred from May’s presidential election.

It’s a close question, given the role of Russia and the tender age of the country’s democracy.