Election of direction: Pro-European Nicusor Dan wins presidential election in Romania

Joy from Paris to Kiev: After the election victory of the pro-European politician Nicusor Dan in the presidential election in Romania, European top European politicians are facilitated. In the evening, the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, France President Emmanuel Macron and his Moldova colleague Maia Sandu congratulated the 55-year-old. Dan had surprisingly prevailed against right -wing populist George Simion.

After counting the votes of almost all polling stations, Dan was around 54 percent, Simion around 46 percent. In the late evening, Simion admitted his defeat after a long hesitation.

Then thousands of cheering fans called in front of the Bucharest town hall: “This victory is yours.” The enthusiastic crowd replied in the choir: “Russia, Russia, Romania doesn’t belong to you!” This referred to the fact that Dans Rival Simion wanted to enforce the Kremlin friend Calin Georgescu for the office of prime minister. Dan is currently still serving as mayor of Bucharest.

Dan warns of difficult times

Dan emphasized several times on the election evening that because of the high budget deficit and probably difficult government formation, there is a lot of work on him. “It will be a difficult time that is necessary to balance the economy (…) in order to create the basics for a healthy society. Please be patient,” he said.

Social Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned on May 5 because of the defeat of his candidate in the first round of the presidential election on May 4. Then “all pro-European parties” called for cooperation in parliament. However, three extremely right -wing parties have more than a third of the seats in parliament, including the party Aur of Simion.

Simion admitted defeat

The inferior right populist Simion only admitted the election after a long hesitation. He congratulated Dan in a video message on Facebook and spoke of his “bitter defeat”.

He had declared himself a winner far before the end of the count. “We are the clear winners of this choice. We claim this victory on behalf of the Romanian people,” said Simion in front of running TV cameras in front of his supporters in Bucharest. Before the elections, Simion had assumed the authorities’s attempts to make the election fraud without providing evidence.

Simion wanted to appoint Kremlfreund Georgescu as head of government

On the election evening, Simion confirmed that he wanted to nominate the right -wing extremist Kremlin friend Georgescu as Prime Minister. Georgescu came first in November 2024 at the annuled presidential election. The Constitutional Court had canceled this election due to violent campaign methods and non -transparent financing and banned its renewed candidacy. In his election campaign, Simion referred to his good relationships with the still popular Georgescu in Romania.

Congratulations for Dan from Kyiv, Brussels and Chisinau

The Ukrainian President Selenskyj congratulated Dan on his “historical victory”, as he wrote on the short messages. “We will always have a high level of respect for Romania and its people, especially in view of the help we got during the hardest time of our history,” he added. Romania supports the neighboring country Ukraine, who was resorted to the Russian attack war, especially in logistics and is a transport path.

EU Commission President of the Leyen wrote at X that the Romanians had chosen the promise of an open, wealthy Romania in a strong Europe with the decision for Dan. France’s President Macron called his future new colleague in Bucharest, as he announced at X. The Romanians had chosen the path of democracy “despite numerous attempts at manipulation (…).

Congratulations also came from the Republic of Moldova. President Maia Sandu had called for her citizens to vote for Dan. Many Moldauers also have a Romanian passport. “The whole world sees how strong we are when we hold together,” wrote Sandu on Facebook. Dan received almost 88 percent of the voices of the Romanians chosen in Moldova.

Results, central electoral office, Romanian tweet von der Leyen, English Maia Sandu on Facebook, Romanian admission defeat Simion, video, Romanian tweet from Macron, French