The centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, is set to win Romania‘s pivotal presidential election with 99 per cent of votes counted, according to official figures showing the pro-European Union independent eight points clear of his far-right rival, George Simion.
The figures from Romania’s central election authority showed Dan, who had cast the second round vote as a battle between “a pro-western and an anti-western Romania”, on 54.2 per cent, while Simion, a self-professed Trump admirer, had 45.8 per cent.
Voters in Poland and Portugal also cast their ballots in a European electoral “super Sunday.
Portugal’s incumbent, centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) has won the country’s third snap general election in three years – but once again fallen well short of a majority – as the underperforming socialists were left vying for second place with the far-right Chega party, which took a record 22 per cent of the vote.
By midnight on Sunday, with 99 per cent of the votes counted, the AD – led by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro – had won 32.2 per cent of the vote and taken 81 seats in the Portugal’s 230-seat assembly, leaving it far shy of the 116 needed for a majority. The Socialist party (PS) had taken 23.4 per cent of the vote and 55 seats to Chega’s 22.6 per cent and 54 seats.
In Poland, the first run-off poll indicated the presidential election was all to play for. Speaking after the exit poll was announced, centrist Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski sought to mobilise his voters as he warned that his lead over the radical-right rival, Karol Nawrocki, was “razor-thin”.
The first poll conducted after Sunday’s vote showed that Trzaskowski led Nawrocki by just two percentage points, 46 per cent to 44 per cent when it comes to voting intention ahead of the runoff on June 1st.
In Romania, Bucharest’s two-term mayor, who made his name fighting corrupt property developers, said voters seeking “profound change, functioning state institutions, less corruption, a prosperous economy and a society of dialogue, not hate, have won”.
Simion disputed the results. He said: “We are the clear winners of these elections. We claim victory in the name of the Romanian people.” He promised a parallel vote count by his supporters would “ensure the identification of any potential fraud”.
It is unclear what steps the populist candidate could take to contest the outcome. Sergiu Mișcoiu, a political scientist, predicted protests but said that, with several percentage points between the results, it was “hard to believe he’d be able to challenge them”.
Simion’s supporters received messages on Sunday evening telling them to protest “if the fraud continues” and calling for a “national protest” on Monday “if they try to steal the victory of the Romanian people”.
Analysts have described the elections as the most important in the country’s post-communist history, with significant implications for the country’s strategic orientation and economic prospects as well as for EU unity.
[ Romanian run-off the most crucial vote on Europe’s ‘Super Sunday’ of electionsOpens in new window ]
Simion won the May 4th first round, triggering the collapse of Romania’s government of centre-left Social Democrats (PSD) and centre-right Liberals (PNL). The new president will nominate the next prime minister and influence the formation of a new coalition.
The former soccer ultra and ultranationalist agitator, who sees his far-right AUR party as a “natural ally” of the US Maga movement, scored almost double his rival’s total, but polls in recent days had shown the gap between the two narrowing.
Turnout, which totalled 53 per cent in the first round, was almost 65 per cent, with young people and Romanians living abroad in particular voting in significantly higher numbers, official figures showed. Analysts had said a high turnout would favour Dan.
The vote is a rerun of last November’s ballot, won by Călin Georgescu, a far-right, Moscow-friendly firebrand, who was barred from standing again after the vote was cancelled amid allegations of campaign finance violations and Russian meddling.
The Romanian foreign ministry said earlier on Sunday it had seen “a viral campaign of fake news on Telegram and other social media platforms” designed “to influence the electoral process”, adding that this bore “the hallmarks of Russian interference”.
Simion had promised to nominate Georgescu, who is under formal investigation on counts including misreporting campaign spending, illegal use of digital technology and promoting fascist groups, as prime minister if he became president.
He pledged on Sunday he would keep that promise, adding: “This is not my victory, but that of the Romanian people, humiliated, robbed and lied to so many times before. It is the victory of a man who should have been president: Călin Georgescu.”
Romanian presidents have a semi-executive role, with considerable powers over foreign policy, national security, defence spending and judicial appointments, and can also dissolve parliament if MPs reject two prime ministerial nominations.
Dan (55) had campaigned on a pledge to fight rampant corruption, to maintain support for Ukraine – where Romania has played an important logistic role – and to keep the country firmly within the European mainstream.
He is backed by the Union to Save Romania (USR), a pro-EU, anti-corruption party that he co-founded, and was endorsed by the PNL. He is thought likely to nominate a USR prime minister and try to form a minority government, possibly backed by the PNL.
Addressing his jubilant supporters in central Bucharest, he said on Sunday he would start talks on forming a new government on Monday but acknowledged his job would be hard. “There will be a difficult period ahead, needed for economic rebalancing,” he said. “Please have hope and patience.”
Simion opposed further aid to Ukraine and had sharply criticised the EU’s leadership. While he insisted he wants Romania to stay in the EU and Nato, he could have allied with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico as another disruptive force.
Mujtaba Rahman, of the Eurasia Group consultancy, said the outcome was “a really strong result for the pro-European candidate”, reflecting the way “concerns about political and policy direction moving in a Maga-like way have mobilised voters”.
The founder of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, earlier appeared to accuse the French government of asking the company to “silence conservative voices in Romania in the election”. France “categorically rejected” what it called “completely unfounded allegations”.
Russian-born Durov, who is now a French national, is being investigated in France over possession of child abuse image, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the app. – Guardian
