Populist-Nationalist Simion Wins First Round of Romania’s Presidential Contest
by Kenneth Schmidt
Kenneth Schmidt reports that George Simion of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians storms to 40.69% in the first round of Romania’s presidential election re-run, as nationalists unite against judicial meddling and political chaos.
George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians party (AUR), came in first place in the first round of the re-run of the Romanian presidential election, getting an amazing 40.69% of the vote. Public opinion polls taken in the run-up to the contest had Simion winning, but only getting about 31 to 34% of the vote. Mr. Simion over-performed the pollsters’ predictions. His nearest competitor, the center-right Nicușor Daniel Dan, mayor of Bucharest, only got 20.98%.
Romanian politics have been in turmoil since the original first round of the presidential election, held on December 8, 2024, was annulled by a dubious order of the court system based on shadowy reports by “intelligence agencies” that the winner, independent nationalist Călin Georgescu, was being sponsored by foreign powers. Georgescu filed for the re-run of the election but the courts intervened again and denied his right to run and then saddled him with some very dodgy criminal charges.
The nationalist and national-conservative movements in Romania are a fractious bunch, but the blatant unfairness toward Georgescu brought about a unity that hadn’t existed before. Diana Șoșoacă of SOS Romania Party was denied permission to run by the courts for being too radical. Anamaria Gavrilă of the Party of Young People, another right-winger, registered to stand in the re-run but backed out in favor of Simion. It’s sad but true that Georgescu, Șoșoacă and Gavrilă were once either members of Simion’s AUR or allied with him in some way, but somehow managed to cross swords with him. Miss Gavrilă has been very close to Georgescu in the past.
If you add up all the figures for those who opposed Simion, it appears that if the other parties’ supporters throw their votes to Mr. Dan, the center-right candidate, then Simion will lose. However, the situation in Romania is volatile and it’s hard to predict the outcome.
Simion’s AUR is friendly with the Romanian Orthodox Church and opposes gender ideology. Simion opposed the draconian COVID-19 lockdowns. AUR wants Romania to unite with its neighbor Moldova, which is mainly Romanian-speaking. The party is Euro-skeptic and leans neutral in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The party has 28 seats in the Senate and 61 in the Chamber of Deputies. AUR has four members in the European Parliament.
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When institutions bend the rules to block candidates they don't like, the people respond, and this time, they responded decisively. Simion's surge isn't just a vote for a man; it's a backlash against a political class that treats national sovereignty as a nuisance and democratic will as optional.
No amount of courtroom games or intelligence leaks can suppress the reality that Romanians want order, identity, and control over their own destiny.
If the so-called guardians of democracy keep meddling, they may soon find themselves irrelevant.