Unlock Editor’s Digest Lock for Free
FT editor Roula Khalaf will select your favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Hard-Right leader George Simion has won the first round of Romania’s presidential election, facing one of two pro-EU centralists in the May 18th leaked vote, according to exit polls.
Simion, co-op candidate of the three Centlist government parties, won 33%, 23%, according to an exit poll by Curs.
The second exit poll by Avangarde also led Simion with 33%, but Antonescu said it was the neck and neck with Nicușor Dan, a liberal and independent mayor of Bucharest, the capital.
The vote was rerun after ultranationalist politician Karin Georgek was invalidated by the Constitutional Court in the first round of votes in November. Simion’s ally, Georjuk, was later barred from standing for a new vote.
The cancellation of the results in November was sharply criticised by US President Donald Trump’s administration, with Vice President JD Vance saying it was an example of the liberal elites in Europe not supporting democratic freedom.
Preliminary results are expected later on Sunday, with final tally scheduled to be announced Monday morning.
The general support for Simion, the leader of the Nationalist AUR Party whose campaign was approved by Georgek, is a further sign of the deep disillusionment of Romanian voters with the mainstream political elite who have shared power since the end of communism.
Simion, a pro-Trump right-wing populist, said he would try to bring Georgek back to leadership positions to reflect his popularity if he was elected to Fort on Sunday.
“In democracy, you let people decide,” Simion said. “So, as president, I can change members of the Constitutional Court, members of the secret services, so I can guarantee fair elections and become a mediator to find a majority in Congress.
Simion’s second round rivals are expected to try and try to form an alliance of all mainstream troops to defeat Simion, but they may have a hard time doing so.
“I’m not too worried about such an alliance,” Simion said. “This is a smoke bomb and a repurposed product [from the fact] That I am not an extremist, but a hooligan, an isolationist who they portray as me. ”
Georgescu had voted well over 40% before being banned from running again in March. On the show of unity, the two men voted outside Bucharest, with some supporters chanting the Progeorjuk slogan.
This abolition pushes Romania into a political crisis at a delicate moment. Its credit rating outlook was recently reduced negatively by Moody’s. Reforms are in dire need as they struggle to tackle the EU’s highest fiscal deficit.
Romania is a key contributor to NATO’s efforts to contain Russian maneuvering in the Black Sea region, an important route for exports from Ukraine, and provides military assistance to its neighbors.
As the vote progressed on Sunday, a group of Russian hackers claimed they had shut down several government ministries and the websites of Antonescu’s campaign pages. However, the denial of service attack was quickly halted, the National Cybersecurity Centre said in a statement.
