Romania’s European allies on Sunday, the 18th of May, welcomed the victory of centrist Nicusor Dan in Romania’s presidential election over Eurosceptic and far-right leader George Simion, according to Reuters.
Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and mayor of Bucharest, won 54% of the vote, ahead of rival Simion, 38, a Trump admirer whose strong showing in the first round of voting this month had shocked allies and investors.
Dan had campaigned on promises to fight corruption, maintain support for Ukraine, where Romania has played an important logistical role, and maintain close ties with the EU.
By contrast, Simion criticised the EU leadership and opposed military aid to Ukraine, and his tough stance ahead of Sunday’s runoff had caused the collapse of Romania’s pro-Western coalition government.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN WAS AMONG THE FIRST TO CONGRATULATE DAN.
“Romanians turned out en masse for the elections,” she wrote on X. “They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe.”
European Council President Antonio Costa also welcomed the future cooperation with Dan.
“From the town hall to the European Council table,” he said. “This is a strong signal of the confidence of the Romanian people in Europe.”
The President of neighbouring Moldova, Maya Sandu, called the result “a step forward for democratic values and for our common European path”.
After years of rising nationalism in Europe, the EU was concerned that Romania could become far-right. Experts said that a Simion victory could damage Romania’s ties with other countries and cause problems in the NATO region.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who will face centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trawszkowski and nationalist Karol Navrockski in the 1st of June presidential election, welcomed Dan’s victory, as did French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Despite many attempts at manipulation, Romanians chose democracy, the rule of law and the European Union tonight”, Macron wrote in Romanian on X.
The election came almost six months after the first vote was cancelled amid allegations of Russian meddling to help far-right leader Kalin Giorgescu. Moscow denied this and Georgescu was banned from standing again.
Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder of the Telegram app, accused the head of the French Foreign Intelligence Agency of asking him to ban Romanian conservative voices before the elections, adding that he had refused the request. The intelligence agency denied the accusations.
Asked about Durov’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was not news that European countries such as France, Britain and Germany were interfering in other countries’ affairs and said the voting had been “strange to say the least”, state news agency TASS reported.