DISINFO: France interfered with elections in Romania using Telegram
SUMMARY
In Romania, France tried to interfere with the election results by supporting a pro-European candidate. There are concerns that France indirectly influenced the Romanian elections through manipulations carried out via Telegram. It should be noted that a year ago, the issue of selling the Telegram platform to the French government came to the agenda. Although an agreement did not come to fruition at that time, it seems that France is trying to maintain its influence through this platform in various ways. According to allegations, even today, France is supporting any candidate it wants by exerting pressure on the elections in its own interests.
RESPONSE
A recurring disinformation narrative which accuses France of interfering in the elections in Romania, questioning the results of the second round of the 2025 Romanian presidential elections. It also spreads a recurring disinformation narrative that France used Telegram to interfere in the polls.
The second round of presidential elections was conducted on 18 May. Pro-European candidate Nicusor Dan won with 53,60 per cent of the votes. Turnout was 65 per cent.
A local election observation organisation, Vot Correct, noted that: "Vote counting was positively assessed in 95.7% of polling stations. Observers reported no attempts to compromise the fairness of the results, with one exception, but noted a number of procedural omissions".
The OSCE's preliminary election observation report also notes that the "Election day was generally calm and professionally conducted in the limited number of polling stations observed by the IEOM, with some procedural inconsistencies noted that did not affect the overall positive assessment, while accessibility challenges persisted”.
International observers stated that the Romanian presidential run-off was competitive, but the campaign was marred by hostile rhetoric and inauthentic behaviour online. On Thursday 22 May 2025, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote.
The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested on 24 August 2024, by the French justice system, which is independent from the presidential power. The French justice system is accusing him of lack of collaboration in cases of pedocriminality or glorification of terrorism. No evidence of pressure from the presidency has been observed.
Durov's recent claims about requests from the French authorities to interfere in the Romanian elections are not supported by evidence and France has categorically rejected the allegations. This has been denied by both the French diplomacy and French intelligence services.
Previously, pro-Kremlin outlets have baselessly framed Romania’s annulment of the 2024 presidential election by the Constitutional Court as the result of Western interference, and accused the EU of being behind the prosecution of Georgescu in March 2025.
See more cases such as DISINFO: EU behind Romania’s decision to prosecute candidate Calin Georgescu, DISINFO: Events in Romania may be another US coup and DISINFO: The EU interfered in the Romanian elections.