Pro-Russian Romanian ultranationalist Calin Georgescu, who was kicked out of another far right party for praising an early 20th century antisemitic fascist movement called the Iron Guard, took the lead in the first round of the country’s presidential election on Sunday, the BBC reports.

Georgescu took 22.94 percent of the vote, followed by liberal reformist candidate Elena Lasconi on 19.18 percent, with center-left Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in third at 19.15 percent, trailing by just 2,700 votes. Another hard-right candidate, George Simion – who leads the Alliance for the Union of Romanians from which Georgescu was expelled – trailed in fourth with 13.86 percent support.

Simion on Monday conceded and urged his fans to support Georgescu in the runoff being held on December 8th. Though the normie candidates’ combined share adds up to 38.33 percent, narrowly ahead of the far right combo’s 36.8 percent, the path is much clearer for Georgescu given weak support for Lasconi’s Save Romania Union in rural areas – if Ciolacu even endorses Lasconi.

Georgescu’s platform might as well have been written by a cheap Kremlin-funded knockoff of ChatGPT: He’s argued that the EU and NATO do not properly represent Romanian interests and claimed Russia’s war in Ukraine was manipulated by American military companies. In 2022, Georgescu claimed the US anti-missile shield located in the southern Romanian village of Deveselu is part of a confrontation policy and not a peaceful measure, a line word-for-word taken from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The candidate himself claimed at the time that he’s had no support from Russia but an affinity for its culture, describing Putin as “a man who loves his country.”