JD Vance and Elon Musk ramp up Romanian election dispute

(Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday launched forceful attacks on Romania's decision to cancel its presidential election in December.

Vance said the cancellation meant Romania does not share American values, while Musk labelled the chief judge of the country's top court a "tyrant".

Their remarks were the latest broadsides aimed at Bucharest by members of President Donald Trump's administration.

Romania's Constitutional Court voided the election in December before a second round of voting, after declassified security documents showed suspicions of Russian interference in favour of far-right NATO critic Calin Georgescu, accusations denied by Moscow.

"The point that I try to make to our European friends is ... that friendship is based on shared values," Vance said at the opening of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

"You don't have shared values if you cancel elections because you don't like the result, and that happened in Romania. If you're so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up."

"So let's have shared values. Let's defend democracy. Let's have free expression, not just in the United States, but all over the Western world. That is the path to strong alliances in Europe."

Vance questioned the cancellation of Romania's election at the Munich Security Conference last week, using it as an example of what he said was undemocratic censorship of free speech and political opponents by European governments.

Also on Thursday, Musk, who is spearheading the Trump administration's new Department of Government Efficiency, shared a post on his X social media platform which said that Romanian top court chief judge Marian Enache had rejected U.S. pressure over whether Georgescu will be allowed to run in the repeat election in May.

Enache on Wednesday denounced what he said were threats made by Georgescu, who has warned Constitutional Court judges that, should he be elected, they will be tried for high treason.

"This guy is a tyrant, not a judge," Musk wrote.

The court was not immediately available to comment.

Musk has previously reposted Georgescu comments as well as podcasts by controversial right-wing hosts such as Alex Jones that featured him.

Georgescu, who has praised Romania's 1930s fascist leaders and expressed admiration for both the U.S. and Russian presidents, remains voters' top choice in opinion polls.

Musk has faced accusations of meddling in European politics after he criticised leaders including Britain's Keir Starmer while openly supporting Germany's far-right AfD in the German parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Giles Elgood)