Huge challenges await new president of divided Romania

Imagine having a president called Nicky.

That’s what Romanians just voted for: a softly-spoken, slightly geeky mathematician who everyone refers to by his first name, Nicusor – or Nicky.

On Monday, hours after claiming victory in the elections, the new president picked up his daughter from school as usual. He’s promised his children nothing will change.

But for Romania things looked very different this morning.

Nicusor Dan has been mayor of Bucharest since 2020 but until now he was little known beyond the capital. That’s why his election is widely seen as an act of protest against the old political guard who have governed Romania for over three decades.

But it was also the least extreme option for change.

Dan’s opponent in the second-round vote was George Simion, a hard-right nationalist and Eurosceptic who regularly dishes out public insults.

He’s also banned from two neighbouring countries because he claims part of Ukraine and all of Moldova belong to Romania.

Simion won the first round with 41% of the vote but Dan caught up in the second, and then took over.

“This time, fear managed to defeat fury,” is how political analyst Radu Magdin explains the shift, and points to a significant increase in turnout.

“Clearly a lot of people are angry in Romania and want to see radical change. But at the same time, we saw massive mobilization of the urban middle class who feared that the country could be taken backwards.

“It was a fear of what may happen if Simion and friends came to power.”

I’ve met plenty of Simion supporters in recent days.

When he turned up to vote on Sunday, a colourful crowd were there at the polling station to greet him. Some were in embroidered national dress and others had brought Romanian flags.

They tended to talk about God and the “traditional values” they think Simion represents. Two men told me their priority was to prevent the EU “imposing” same-sex marriage on Romania.

Other voters are drawn to Simion’s “Romania first” rhetoric and promises of a better life.

“Nothing has been done for us, the working people, and I’m fed up,” Liliana told me this week from behind a Bucharest market stall piled with apples.

She and her husband voted for Simion thinking he wouldn’t be “so corrupt”.

So when the results came in she was disappointed.

“I don’t think Dan is capable of running a country. But what can we do if people don’t want change and progress?” Liliana shrugged.

“I think children came back to the villages and persuaded their parents against Simion. They scared them into voting for Dan.”

George Simion himself told me he was a patriot and a “man of my people”. But as the campaign advanced, he made mistakes.

Outside the market, feeding pigeons with her children, Diana said she’d been planning to vote for Simion until she saw a video from Paris just before the elections.

Attempting to speak French, Simion had described President Macron as having “dictatorial tendencies” and said the country was run by “the ayatollahs”.

“It wasn’t okay to do that, to go there and talk so rudely to the French people,” Diana thinks. “It made me change my vote.”

Analyst Radu Magdin spots other errors, including aggressive blog posts and the moment when Simion insulted his rival, Dan, calling him “autistic, poor guy”.

“Other than that, he seemed to flee the public debate and went shaking hands in the pan-European radical right instead,” Mr Magdin mentions, referring to meetings in Poland, France and Italy right before the vote.

“I would say there were many people who did not really appreciate that.”

For many Romanians, choosing Dan was also a strike against Moscow’s meddling.

At the election street celebrations last night, as well as yelling the new president’s name and cheering, people chanted their defiance: “Russia, don’t forget! Romania is not yours!”

They were referring to evidence Russia interfered in their election back in November to boost the chances of far-right conspiracy theorist, Calin Georgescu.

When he came from nowhere to win the first round, the vote was annulled.

This weekend was a re-run, with Georgescu banned and Simion in his place. The two were often seen side-by-side, even on voting day.

But Georgescu’s open sympathy for Russia – he once told me he admired Vladimir Putin – was a turn-off for many voters.

Nicusor Dan didn’t only win because he was not Simion.

His voters liked what he stood for, including a future firmly within Europe.

When thousands surrounded his campaign headquarters last night to wait for him to claim victory, many brought EU flags. There was relief as well as excitement.

Before the election, young voters had told me they planned radical action if Simion won.

“So many friends say that they will leave Romania because our values do not align with him at all,” politics graduate Sergiana told me in central Bucharest. “I feel like in a year or two he would completely mess up our chances to stay in the EU.”

By contrast, Dan put relations with Europe at the heart of his campaign.

“It’s better for the European way, for younger people and for Romania – because we get more EU funds, more development,” another young voter, Petrosanu, approved.

“Also Nicusor is the smartest guy since the revolution. He knows how to do things.”

In the end, Dan’s win was emphatic. But millions of Romanian voters chose a different way, different values. While hopes for the ‘change’ candidate are high, the challenges are huge and patience may be limited.

“In my view, this is the last chance for the mainstream political class to win an election on a ‘Save Europe, Save Democracy’ platform,” Radu Magdin warns.

George Simion is just 38 and going nowhere; his nationalist AUR party are strong in parliament.

“Next time, it’s ‘bye bye’ if these people do not do their job,” the analyst says. “Next time it could be somebody like Simion.”