BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) \u2014 A pro-European Union centrist pulled off an upset in Romania\u2019s presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channeled people\u2019s anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final results from Sunday\u2019s presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6% of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania\u2019s presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fueled a broad rejection of the political establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dan\u2019s decisive win on Sunday was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion \u2014 a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighboring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine \u2014 had nearly double Dan\u2019s share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simion\u2019s surge to prominence came after Romania\u2019s first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country\u2019s political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capitalizing on the furor over the annulment of that election, Simion allied with Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo, and promised to appoint him prime minister if Simion secured the presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Simion was considered the favorite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7% in Sunday\u2019s ballot \u2014 more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century \u2014 is thought to have benefited Dan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania\u2019s large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe. Estimates suggest that between 4 and 5 million Romanians live abroad \u2014 nearly a quarter of the country\u2019s population. Most emigrated after Romania joined the EU in 2007, seeking relief from high unemployment and low wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Dan is sworn in as president in the coming days, he will face the challenge of nominating a prime minister who can garner the support necessary to form a government \u2014 a tall order in a country where anger with establishment politicians led to the emergence of figures like Georgescu and Simion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Dan himself, who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects and ran independently on a pro-EU ticket to support Ukraine and reaffirm Western ties, is among the critics of Romania\u2019s entrenched political elite, and has argued for fiscal reforms and a crackdown on corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, he struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning \u201ca new chapter, and it needs every one of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt needs experts to get involved in various public policies, it needs people in civil society, it needs new people in politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, says Dan will face a string of immediate challenges, including putting together a new government in what is now a \u201ctotally new political landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe will have to push and show reforms while meeting resistance in the state apparatus and being opposed by the new populist parties that now won 5 million votes,\u201d Andrei said. \u201cHe will be under pressure to deliver change to an exasperated Romania while trying to unify a divided country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure \u2014 especially since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe\u2019s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dan said Monday he had a call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and that he conveyed to Rutte that Romania \u201cwill remain a steadfast ally\u201d within the alliance. \u201dAt the same time, we rely on NATO to guarantee Romania\u2019s unwavering security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many observers saw Sunday\u2019s vote as crucial to maintaining Romania\u2019s place within the network of Western alliances \u2014 especially amid fears that the Trump administration is reconsidering its security commitments to the United States\u2019 European partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian member of the European Parliament, told The Associated Press on Monday that the election result was a relief for many in Brussels, the EU\u2019s de-facto capital, and that Romania is now expected to play an active role in the bloc particularly in security and defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was an erosion of Romania\u2019s credibility in the last year,\u201d Muresan said. \u201cThat is partly restored now through the clear victory of the pro-European candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muresan added that Romanians will expect Dan to deliver on promised reforms, but that his clear victory marks a setback for hard-right nationalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople really rallied behind Europe \u2026 and understood the risks which extremists pose,” he said. \u201cSo much lies now with the new president, who is a unifier, who has campaigned on the basis of facts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":119709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,46,11,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3720],"class_list":["post-70251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"EU and NATO advocates breathe a sigh of relief, but fault lines remain after a tense election","legacy_arc_id":"BMKW6B3UHVBSVPT3RNUP3CLQEE","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2025\/05\/20\/romanias-new-pro-european-president-puts-it-back-on-a-western-course\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n