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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.
Protesters gathered outside the court in Bucharest on Tuesday in support of Georgescu, who is leading the opinion polls with the backing of more than 40 per cent of voters.
Georgescu had topped a first-round vote in November, but the result was subsequently annulled by the constitutional court following allegations that he had illegally benefited from a campaign orchestrated by Moscow.
US vice-president JD Vance later attacked that move, which he suggested showed that European “entrenched interests” were “running in fear” from voters.
The Kremlin slammed Georgescu’s ban from the May elections as “trampling upon all democratic norms in the centre of Europe”.
Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, added: “Any elections that will exclude him will be illegitimate”.
This is a developing story
