In Sunday’s first round of repeated presidential elections in Romania, the leader of the far right -wing alliance for the Unification of Romanians (Aur) George Simion won over 40 percent of the votes. The Mayor of Bucharest Nicušor Dan has shifted to the second place as an independent with almost 21 percent of votes, the third was the candidate for the pro -European minority government Crin Antonescu with approximately 20 percent. This stems from data from almost 99 percent of the districts published by the Election Commission. She informed about Antena3 CNN.
According to these data, Dan advanced to the second round, which will take place in two weeks.
Simion’s statements
“This is not just an election victory,” said Simion, 38, in the first reaction to the results. “It is the victory of the dignity of Romania. It is the victory of those who have not given up hope, those who still believe in Romania, in a free, respected and sovereign country.”
Simion benefited from the dissatisfaction of the population with established political parties. It is critical of the EU and supports US President Donald Trump’s policy. Unlike Antonesca, she rejects military assistance to neighboring Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. Its popularity is particularly high in rural areas, but also in the Romanian diaspora.
Presidential function in Romania
In Romania, the President has a mostly representative position. It commands armed forces and chairing the Security Council of the State, which, among other things, decides on military aid. The term of office of the Head of State is limited to two five years.
The first round of the presidential election held on November 24, 2024 surprisingly won Calin Georgescu, although the pre -election surveys attributed only minimal support. However, on the basis of information from the secret services, the Constitutional Court, on December 6, the results of the first round of the election for illegal interventions in the election campaign on social networks annulled and Georgesca excluded from them.
Accusations of Russian interventions
According to their findings, the campaign was disrupted by Russia through thousands of artificial accounts on the Platforms of Tictik and Telegram. Moscow denies this accusation. The Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (Diicot) began to investigate Georges’ campaign after analyzing the declassified documents.
Simion described the abolition of elections five months ago as a “coup” and accused the EU as an illegal interference in the campaign. His campaign predominantly online to address an influential group of Romanian voters abroad. As a fan of Trump, he repeatedly said that he would always place the country first, hinting his motto “Let’s make America great again”.
Plans for the next steps
Simion promised that if he wins the second round of the election, Georgescua would lead to power. He named three ways to achieve this goal – a referendum, early elections, or the creation of a coalition in parliament that would appoint him as a prime minister.
Several Romanian authorities and some presidential candidates reported attacks on their websites on Sunday, according to Austrian television ORF. The websites of the government, the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, the Constitutional Court and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were paralyzed for a short time. DDOS attacks in which the perpetrators try to disrupt or disable the website, network or other online service by overloading it with a large number of false or unsolicited requirements. The attacks were applied for by the pro -Russian hacker group Noname057.
