Thousands of Romanians rallied outside the country's top court on Friday to protest against the December cancellation of the presidential election in which a little-known pro-Russian candidate won the first round.

Romanian intelligence chiefs should be fired for creating an “ambiguous” report used by judges to annul the country’s general election results, a leading candidate has said.

The Constitutional Court had scrapped the election amid concerns over a Russian influence campaign that apparently helped ultranationalist Georgescu rocket from obscurity to win the first round. Georgescu’s ticket was buoyed by a TikTok campaign that Romania’s security services likened to previous Kremlin-run operations in Moldova and Ukraine.

Romanians took to the streets on Friday in support of fringe pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu, demanding the country’s top court reverse its decision to cancel a presidential ballot in which he was a frontrunner.

Thousands of flag-waving Romanians protested outside parliament on Friday against the annulment of presidential elections, where an obscure far-right candidate had been the front-runner amid claims of Russian interference.