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Why did the presidential elections in Romania stir up such controversy? How did the mechanisms of disinformation and external interference affect the outcome of the vote and lead to its invalidation? Social media analyst Michał Fedorowicz reveals the backstage of this surprising political process. The electoral process in Romania was called into question due to a large-scale information operation aimed at influencing the outcome of the election – explains Michał Fedorowicz, chairman of the European analytical collective Res Futura. - Romanian services indicated a violation of the internet space by third parties – says Fedorowicz. The disinformation operations were not only aimed at the internal Romanian market, but also had a wide resonance in neighboring countries, such as Poland and Ukraine. These manipulations undermined citizens' trust in the democratic process. These elections were supposed to be held in a standard way, but according to experts, external actors broke into the media and social media space. The result was accusations of manipulation and the decision of the constitutional court to invalidate the first round of voting. As Fedorowicz explains, one of the key elements of this campaign was the extensive information manipulation, which spread catchy slogans popular on social media and gained huge reach, building the image of the candidate as the "ideal leader". They appeal to resentment and fears of the world. - We used to be a big country, we are important, we should decide about ourselves. We are not interested in other wars. This is already interesting. We want peace because we want to develop, so that we have more money in our wallets, be important and that they take us into account. And this is the first such basic narrative built - says Fedorowicz. And later comes the answer? The only candidate who can provide us with this is Călin Georgescu. Is it possible to carry out a similar operation in Poland? According to Fedorowicz, we are an easy target. Firstly, there are economic problems, secondly historical problems, strong polarization, low trust in the state and the media. What conclusions can be drawn from the events in Romania? Will electoral manipulation become the norm in Central and Eastern Europe? You can hear all about it in the latest episode of the podcast "Rzecz w tym". More on the website: rp.pl Twitter: twitter.com/rzeczpospolita Facebook: facebook.com/dziennikrzeczpospolita Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/rzeczpospolita/