Facts-Who is Romania's surprise hard-right presidential candidate?

Calin Georgescu, a Romanian hard-right NATO critic, appeared in a dead heat with leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu after the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, partial tallies showed, a shock result threatening Romania's staunchly pro-Ukraine stance.

Opinion surveys had Georgescu, an independent, polling in single digits ahead of Sunday's first election round.

Following are some facts about Georgescu and quotes from him.

* Georgescu, 62, was a member of the hard-right opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), which touted him as their choice for prime minister. He left AUR in 2022 after senior party members said his pro-Russian, anti-NATO stance damaged the party's image.

* In a 2021 interview, he called NATO's ballistic missile defence shield in the Romanian town of Deveselu a "shame of diplomacy" and said the North Atlantic alliance will not protect any of its members should they be attacked by Russia.

* He has also said Ion Antonescu, Romania's de facto World War Two leader who was sentenced to death for his part in Romania's Holocaust, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the pre-World War Two leader of the Iron Guard - one of Europe's most violent anti-Semitic movements - were national heroes.

* In a separate interview, he said Romania wasn't ready to handle anything diplomatically and strategically and that its best chance lay with "Russian wisdom." However, he has refused to explicitly say whether he supports Russia.

* In October, pollster Inscop had him listed under "other" at less than 0.4% support for president. In November, it ranked him in sixth place with 5.4%.

* AUR leader George Simion said late on Sunday he had congratulated Georgescu adding he will support "anyone who isn't Marcel Ciolacu" in the second round.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)