Ben Pawlowski
THE European Union breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as centrist candidate Nicusor Dan launched a surprise comeback to win Romania’s presidential run-off, even though Romanians living in Spain overwhelmingly voted for his ultranationalist former football hooligan rival.
George Simion, a far-right Eurosceptic who had vowed to slash all aid to Ukraine, received 68 per cent of the vote among the Romanian expat community in Spain.
He was particularly dominant with voters across western Europe, also winning in Germany (68 per cent), Italy (67 per cent), Austria (66 per cent), the United Kingdom (58 per cent) and France (57 per cent).
But Simion’s popularity throughout the Romanian diaspora was not enough to win the election outright as Dan, the staunchly pro-European mayor of capital city Bucharest, scored 53.6 per cent overall, aided by a record turnout of 65%.
“It is a victory for thousands and thousands of people who[…]believe that Romania can change in the right direction,” the winning candidate told his supporters after the outcome became clear.
Dan, 55, had campaigned on a pro-EU, pro-Nato and pro-Ukraine ticket, but appeared destined for defeat after the first round of voting two weeks ago when he received just 21 per cent of the vote compared with Simion’s 41 per cent.
The rise of Simion, 38, had alarmed European officials. An admirer of US president Donald Trump, the founder of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) was the replacement candidate for Calin Georgescu, a fellow far-right politician whose election victory last November was annulled by Romanian authorities amid allegations that the winner had benefited from €1 million in undeclared funds and a Russian-funded TikTok campaign.
Simion vowed to hand Georgescu the prime minister’s job if he won. He also threatened to halt all support for Ukraine and annex neighbouring Moldova.
President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the election result as a ‘historic victory’ on social media.
“For Ukraine as a neighbour and friend it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner. And we are confident we will,” he said.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the result would help ‘a strong Europe’, while the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, described it as a ‘strong signal of Romanians’ attachment to the European project’.
French president Emmanuel Macron said Romania had ‘chosen democracy, the rule of law, and the European Union’.
Of the more than 1.63 million Romanians who voted abroad, 55.9 per cent voted for Simon, while 44.1 per cent supported Dan. Spain is home to 644,473 registered Romanian voters.
When asked by El País why so many expats had voted for Simion, journalist Felix Damian said: “Many Romanians living in Spain did not vote for extremism, nor for radical ideologies. Their aim was to bring about change in these elections. For years they have seen how Romania has failed to progress, with the same politicians, the same problems.
“In Spain, many of them have moved on: they have created businesses, started families, and live in a country that, with its imperfections, works better. And of course, they want the same for their country of origin.”
