Ultra-nationalist George Simion wins first round of Romania’s presidential election

Brussels – As predicted by the polls, the ultranationalist George Simion won (by a landslide) the first round of the Romanian presidential election. The leader of the radical right-wing party AUR picked up the political legacy of Călin Georgescu, the pro-Russian independent ousted from the electoral process in the severe political crisis that shook the Balkan country for months. The runner-up, centrist Nicușor Dan, won slightly over half of his support, narrowly edging out the government coalition candidate, Crin Antonescu. The runoff puzzle now opens as the specter of a Euroskeptic president opposed to aid to Kyiv hovers over Bucharest.

With all votes counted, the response from the ballot box could not have been clearer. The first round of presidential elections yesterday (May 4) was overwhelmingly won by populist and pro-Kremlin far-right. The 38-year-old George Simion, head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) – an ultranationalist and anti-migrant formation, highly critical of the EU and support for Ukrainian resistance (so much so that he was banned from Kyiv last year) – and a supporter of Trumpism in Maga sauce, took home 40.96 percent of the vote.

“This is not just an election victory: it is a victory for you, for the Romanian people, for our dignity,” Simion said in a pre-recorded video message broadcast at the AUR headquarters last night. “It is the triumph of those who have not lost hope, those who still believe in a free, respected, and sovereign Romania,” he added.

The center-right candidate, Nicușor Dan, followed at a distance, securing 20.99 percent of the votes. The former mayor of the capital surpassed by less than a point Crin Antonescu, chosen as the common name by the forces that make up the governing coalition (the liberals of the NLP, the social democrats of the PSD, and the party representing the Hungarian minority, the UDMR), who instead stopped at 20.07 percent.

The two competed for the same electoral pool, and the majority leaders should publicly endorse Dan. The leadership of the USR — the main liberal-conservative party that is in opposition — favored the former Bucharest mayor over Elena Lasconi (who yesterday stopped at 2.68 percent), dumped by her party in early April precisely because of Dan’s better chances of making it to the run-off.

It was a remarkable performance by Simion, considering that pre-election polls put him at around 30 percent. However, it is not a bolt from the blue as it reflects perfect continuity with the results (judged sensational even at the time) of the November round when the independent candidate Călin Georgescu had made a splash with the same pro-Russian and ultranationalist political platform. However, due to heavy Russian interference detected by intelligence services, the Constitutional Court canceled the entire election process in December. Georgescu was then permanently banned from the presidential vote in early March.

Simion inherited Georgescu‘s political mantle, further increasing the Sovereignist vote base by riding on the wave of popular protest against the annulment of the November elections. At the time, the two ultra-right groups had together garnered about 36 percent. Should they win the runoff, AUR’s leader (who could also count on the 13.05 percent of the other national-populist candidate, former socialist premier Victor Ponta) has promised to appoint Georgescu as prime minister.

European sovereignists greeted yesterday’s result enthusiastically, starting with colleagues from the Conservatives and Reformists, on whose benches AUR sits (and of which Simion is vice-president), along with Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) and the Polish PiS. FdI’s Nicola Procaccini, ECR’s co-leader in Strasbourg, congratulated a campaign that has “electrified Romania.”

ECR Group Co-Chairmen @@NProcaccini and @PatrykJaki congratulate @georgesimion on leading the first round of Romania‘s presidential race. pic.twitter.com/XbvXHkPAWE

— ECR Group (@ecrgroup) May 4, 2025

The second round of presidential elections is on May 18. The question on everyone’s mind is whether the pro-European parties will be able to convince the majority of voters to support Dan to prevent a Moscow sympathizer from ending up running the Balkan state on the border with Ukraine (where what is supposed to become Europe’s biggest NATO base is under construction). If that were to happen, Romania would join the ranks of Union members openly critical of Brussels’ support for Kyiv, and together with Hungary and Slovakia, could create quite a few headaches for the rest of the 27 member states in the European Council.