Nobody in Romania saw the presidential election upset coming — not the public, not the pundits — and not the first-round winner, an ultranationalist with a formidable TikTok following who has doled out praise for Vladimir Putin.

The European Union’s sixth most populous country is grappling with a pressing question: how did an unknown far-right leader, running without the backing of any political party, manage to win the first round of the presidential elections?

With more than 99 per cent of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu, a far-right, pro- Russia candidate, has an unassailable lead in the Romanian presidential election of nearly 350,000 votes over his centre-right rival, Elena Lasconi, and the Prime Minister in third.