Romania’s central election authority barred far-right candidate Calin Georgescu from competing in May’s presidential election re-run, not the European Union, contrary to misleading posts online.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that blocking Georgescu from the election rerun — after the pro-Russian candidate won November’s canceled election — was “a violation of all democratic norms in the center of Europe,” and that elections held without him would be illegitimate.

Protests erupted in downtown Bucharest following the Central Electoral Bureau's decision to ban Russian-backed far-right politician Calin Georgescu from running in the upcoming re-run presidential elections.

By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, will replace Calin Georgescu as the leading far-right candidate in the May presidential elections,