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Hard-right leader George Simion has won the first round of Romania’s presidential election, according to exit polls, and will face one of two pro-EU centrists in the run-off vote on May 18.
Simion won 33 per cent according to an exit poll by CURS, with Crin Antonescu, the joint candidate of three centrist government parties, on 23 per cent. However, the race for second place looks to be on a knife-edge.
A second exit poll by Avangarde also put Simion in the lead on 33 per cent, but said Antonescu was neck and neck with Nicușor Dan, the liberal, independent mayor of the capital Bucharest, on 23 per cent.
The vote was rerun after the success of ultranationalist politician Călin Georgescu in the first-round ballot in November was annulled by the constitutional court over allegations of Russian interference. Georgescu, an ally of Simion, was subsequently barred from standing in the new ballot.
The cancellation of November’s result was sharply criticised by US President Donald Trump’s administration, with vice-president JD Vance saying it was an example of Europe’s liberal elite failing to uphold democratic freedoms.
Provisional results are expected later on Sunday, with a final tally to be announced on Monday morning. There were 11 candidates in total.
Analysts cautioned that the exit polls did not reflect a high turnout by Romanians abroad, with diaspora voters tending to favour either Simion or Dan. Nearly 1mn Romanians outside the country voted.
The popular support for Simion, leader of the nationalist AUR party whose campaign was endorsed by Georgescu, is a further sign of Romanian voters’ deep disenchantment with the mainstream political elites, which have shared power since the end of communism.
Simion, a pro-Trump rightwing populist, told the FT on Sunday that if elected president he would try to bring back Georgescu to a leadership position to reflect his popularity.
“In a democracy, you let the people decide,” Simion said. “So as a president, I can change the members of the constitutional court, the members of the secret services, so I can assure fair elections and I can be a mediator to find the majority in the parliament. This is the way we can think of having him as . . . prime minister.”
Simion’s second-round rival is expected to try to form an alliance of all mainstream forces to defeat Simion, but may struggle to do so.
“I’m not too worried about such an alliance,” Simion said. “This is only a smoke bomb, a diversion [from the fact] that I’m not the extremist, the hooligan, the isolationist they are portraying me to be.”
In the second round Simion could pick up voters from supporters of former premier Victor Ponta, a leftwing politician turned Trump fan, who won 15 per cent on Sunday according to the exit polls.
Georgescu had polled well over 40 per cent before he was barred from running again in March. In a show of unity, the two men cast their ballots together in a Bucharest suburb where some supporters chanted pro-Georgescu slogans.
The annulment thrust Romania into a political crisis at a sensitive moment. Its credit rating outlook has recently been cut to negative by Moody’s. It is in dire need of reforms as it struggles to tackle the EU’s highest budget deficit.
A key contributor to Nato efforts to contain Russian manoeuvres in the Black Sea region, Romania is an important route for exports from Ukraine and has also offered military aid for its neighbour.
As voting proceeded on Sunday, a Russian hacker group claimed to have shut down the websites of several government ministries and Antonescu’s campaign page. But the denial-of-service attack was foiled quickly, the national cyber security centre said in a statement.
