Far-Right Candidate Dominates First Round of Romania’s Recall Election

Far-right leader George Simion emerged as the clear frontrunner in the first round of Romania’s presidential election Sunday, in a closely watched rerun vote that may reshape the country’s political landscape, the Financial Times reported. 

Results showed that Simion, leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, won a little more than 40 percent of the vote.  

Centrist independent Mayor Nicușor Dan came in second with 20.9 percent, earning the chance to face Simion in a runoff.  

Crin Antonescu – another centrist who was the joint candidate of the three parties in the governing coalition – was eliminated, though he garnered 20.4 percent of the ballots. He conceded, saying the result was “irreversible,” but did not endorse either remaining candidate. 

Sunday’s rerun followed months of political turmoil after the constitutional court annulled the previous election result from November, which was won by ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, on the grounds that it was marred by Russian interference.  

Georgescu, an ally of Simion, was subsequently barred from running again. 

Simion has pledged to pursue a hardline nationalist agenda and hinted that, if elected, he could appoint Georgescu to a leadership role.  

The future political direction of Romania, a NATO member and part of the European Union, hangs in the balance. 

Political analysts suggested that under Simion, the country could move closer to Hungary and Slovakia, both EU states that have clashed with the bloc and have unclear ties with Russia. 

Costin Ciobanu, a researcher at Denmark’s Aarhus University, told the FT that the results reflect a “second electoral shock for the ruling coalition” following Georgescu’s annulled win and said the two votes amount to “a repudiation of the mainstream alliance in Romania.” 

Sunday’s vote was also disrupted by a series of cyberattacks on government and presidential candidates’ websites, noted Politico. 

Russian hacker group DDOSIA/NoName057 claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted the campaign websites of Dan and Antonescu. Authorities said the distributed denial-of-service attacks briefly disrupted access, but all sites were restored by the afternoon.