On May 17, 2025, Politico published an investigation revealing new details about the scandal surrounding the cancellation of the 2024 presidential elections in Romania. According to the data, supporters of ultra-nationalist Calin Georgescu, whose candidacy was withdrawn due to suspicions of foreign interference, were planning an armed coup to destabilize the country. A key role in the plot was played by Horatiu Potra, a former mercenary of the French Foreign Legion and commander of a private military company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Romanian prosecutors accuse him of attempting to undermine the constitutional order, and an international arrest warrant for Potra, who is hiding in Dubai, only increases tension around the case.

The turning point, according to Politico, was a meeting between Georgescu and his closest allies, including Potru, on December 7, 2024, at a horse-riding base in Ciolpani, near Bucharest. The meeting took place the day after the Constitutional Court ruled to annul the first round of the presidential election, which Georgescu had won by surprise with 22,9% of the vote thanks to a viral TikTok campaign. The court, relying on declassified intelligence, cited “foreign interference” and irregularities in the financing of Georgescu’s campaign, which he claimed to have spent zero. Prosecutors believe the meeting discussed a plan similar to the events of January 6, 2021, in the United States: provoking mass unrest to seize control of state institutions.

On December 8, Potra and a group of 20 people were detained by police in Ilfov County on their way to Bucharest. An arsenal of weapons, including pistols, machetes, axes, knives, as well as large sums of money in five currencies and a drone, were found in five cars. According to Digi24, the group had booked rooms in hotels near Bucharest’s University Square, the site of earlier anti-Georgescu protests, and had lists of politicians and journalists for an “intimidation operation.” Prosecutors say Potra coordinated a “paramilitary operation” to create chaos after the elections were cancelled.

Searches of Potra’s and his associates’ homes on February 26, 2025, heightened suspicions. Investigators found military-style weapons, including grenade launchers, and more than €3 million in cash hidden in walls and under floors. According to Romania Insider, prosecutors also found correspondence between Georgescu and Potra from August 2024, in which the candidate asked for “support” ahead of the elections, and a conversation with Marian Motocu, the leader of a far-right group, about seizing power in January 2025.

The case has divided Romanian society. Georgescu's supporters, who gathered outside parliament on March 11 after a court decision to bar him from running in the May 4 re-run, called the charges "elite slander."