Romania, Simion calls for annulment of presidential elections due to fraud and outside interference

Brussels – Only a few days after Europeanist Nicușor Dan won the Romanian presidential elections, the political climate in Romania is in danger of becoming heated again. The leader of Romania’s far-right George Simion, who emerged largely defeated in the presidential race, announced last night (20 May) that he intends to file a appeal to the Constitutional Court to annul the result of the presidential runoff held on Sunday 18 May, which saw Dan win with 53.6 per cent of the vote against Simion’s 46.4 per cent.

George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Aur), shows no evidence, but claims that the vote was conditioned by external interference, similar to what happened in the November 2024 elections, victory by the Constitutional Court for alleged Russian interference and campaign finance violations. “I officially ask the Constitutional Court to annul the Romanian presidential elections in May 2025 for the same reasons for which the previous elections were annulled,” Simion said in a
cancelled. to local media. Simion also made accusations of election fraud, alleging vote buying and fraud in the declared turnout: ‘The will of the Romanians in Bessarabia was bought. On 18 May dead people voted, and no calculation in the world can show that more than 11.5 million Romanians voted’.

The Aur leader also accused France and Moldova of orchestrating interference in the electoral process by manipulating the media and social media algorithms to influence public opinion. Simion claims to have proof of this, and also quoted a statement from the founder of Telegram, Russian Pavel Durov, according to whom Paris had called for ‘silencing conservative voices’ in Romania. Durov, in a affirmation on X, said he was ready to testify in favour of Simion

Although he acknowledged that the chances of success of his appeal are limited, the ultranationalist said he wanted to provide citizens with a template for individual appeals, post ‘all Romanians of good faith to demand the annulment of this farce‘. The Court, if a formal appeal actually arrives, will have to examine the appeal submitted by Simion and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to consider it and possibly decide whether to annul the presidential elections again.

I’m ready to come and testify if it helps Romanian democracy. inviting

– Pavel Durov (@durov) https://t.co/lEq16uKg8b