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The Romanian far-right leader who took the baton from barred presidential candidate Călin Georgescu has struck a more conciliatory tone, saying that Europe needs a united front against Russia.
George Simion was cleared to run in May’s elections after judges barred pro-Russia frontrunner Georgescu, citing the threat Georgescu had posed to the constitutional order. Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians party sits in the same group with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) in the European parliament, has struck a markedly different tone, especially on the war in Ukraine.
“Putin’s Russia was and is one of the biggest threats for the European states, especially for us, for the Baltic states and for Poland,” Simion told the Financial Times. “We need unity, but not just in Europe: also between Europe and the United States, we need the same approach.”
Romania has been a key plank of US and European efforts to aid Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression. But the treatment of Georgescu has sparked tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has accused Bucharest and other European capitals of bias against rightwing movements.
US vice-president JD Vance said Romanian authorities had used “flimsy” evidence to cancel a first-round vote last year that had been topped by Georgescu. Romanian authorities had alleged that the previously fringe candidate had benefited from a sophisticated social media campaign orchestrated by Moscow.
Simion has Georgescu’s backing, but he is now distancing himself from the former frontrunner who had described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “patriot” and a role model he wanted to emulate in Romania.
Before being banned, Georgescu had ranked first in opinion polls, at over 40 per cent. Some of that support has shifted to Simion, who is now the frontrunner, according to a survey published on Monday by the AtlasIntel. He ranked first at 30 per cent, followed by centrist Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan at 26 per cent and the joint candidate of the three-way coalition government, Crin Antonescu, at 18 per cent.
Thousands of pro-European protesters took to the streets of Bucharest and other Romanian cities at the weekend to demonstrate against the far right and its attempts to push their country back into Russia’s sphere of influence.
Simion, who spoke after the demonstrations, said there was a path for him and Romania to chart a new course but stay in the European fold.
“Our stance cannot be changed. 80 per cent of the Romanians want Nato and want the European Union. This is not something we can negotiate,” he said. “People voted for Mr Georgescu because they wanted someone outside the current political parties . . . I’m a young leader. I am part of this change.”
In reference to his origins as a far-right youth leader with connections to football hooligans, he said: ‘‘You could see the football supporter becoming a responsible statesman.”
He compared himself to Italy’s rightwing premier, who also cut her political teeth in the country’s post-fascist youth movement. “Giorgia Meloni didn’t take Italy out of the European Union, but is an example,” he said. “And so will Romania be a success story.’’
Regarding a potential withdrawal of the US from Nato’s eastern flank, Simion insisted that it was paramount to keep “privileged relations between EU and US”, adding: “Without a common geopolitical bloc, like . . . Nato, led by the US, we are in a big danger.”
The far-right leader said it was important to heed Trump’s call to invest more in Europe’s own military forces. “This is what we have to do.”
He said the US talking directly to Russia without involving EU countries or Ukraine first was “only to manage to get to Russia at the negotiating table”. Maintaining economic sanctions on Russia was “a sure way to protect from future invasions like the one that happened in Ukraine”, he said.
But he said he was against sending further military or financial aid to Ukraine, as that would only prolong the war needlessly — and that the 30-day ceasefire proposal made by Trump was the only viable solution.
Simion distanced himself from older statements about reclaiming lands inhabited by Romanian speakers, which prompted Ukraine and Moldova to issue a travel ban against him. He said the accusations of historic revisionism were false and that he would quickly mend ties with Kyiv if he were to win the presidency in May.
“We will not talk about annexing territories. It’s not my ideology.”
But Simion did acknowledge that it was his party’s long-term goal to unite with Moldova, although he insisted it would only be achieved under international settlements and if both nations voted for such a move in referendums. His AUR party became the second-largest parliamentary force in December elections.
The most recent opinion poll about Moldova was conducted in October by the public policy institute IPP, and showed that half of respondents were against the idea of a union with Romania. Just 35.6 per cent backed it.
The 38-year-old is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe for saying that members of the electoral bureau who barred Georgescu from running should be “skinned in a public square”. He said the comments were a figure of speech.
“Of course, this is not wanted in a democracy, such statements,” he said. “But the situation was quite tense.”
