Pro-EU moderate Nicușor Dan wins Romanian presidential election stunner

BUCHAREST — Romania elected a centrist president in a major surprise after an intense campaign in which voters looked likely to propel another hard-right populist to lead a large European country. 

Despite coming a distant second in the first round two weeks ago, the moderate mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, won by a decisive 8-point majority over his radical rival, George Simion, who conceded defeat early Monday after initially declaring himself the winner. 

With 99.8 percent of polling stations counted by 1:50 a.m. local time Monday, Dan had won 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent for Simion. Turnout was 65 percent, the highest since 1996. 

“Elections are about communities — and in today’s elections a community of Romanians who want a profound change in Romania won,” Dan said. “It’s a moment of hope.”

“This is your victory,” Dan told his ecstatic supporters, many of whom stayed into the early hours of Monday, dancing on the pavement outside his campaign headquarters. “It’s the victory of thousands and thousands of people who campaigned […] who believed that Romania can change in the correct direction.”

Earlier in the evening, when the first exit poll results filtered through to the crowd predicting Dan’s triumph, his fans screamed and applauded, and began chanting: “Nicușor! Nicușor!”

Dan, 55, has the air of an academic and was a talented mathematician before entering politics. Standing as an independent, his softly spoken style could not be more different from the bombastic nationalism of Simion, his 38-year-old opponent from the hard-right AUR party, who consciously copied Donald Trump and wanted to halt aid to Ukraine. 

Yet there were early signs that all was not well with Simion’s maverick campaign.

While voting was still underway, he began questioning the legitimacy of the vote. He even claimed victory on Sunday night, despite the clear exit poll margin and emerging results going against him. “I am the new president of Romania,” Simion insisted in a social media post.

But hours later, he posted a video on Facebook congratulating Dan and admitting defeat. “He won the elections. It was the Romanian people’s will,” Simion said about Dan’s victory. 

It was a bitter result for Simion, who spent much of the final week of campaigning touring Europe rather than Romania. He told POLITICO last week the election was going his way and predicted he would win by “a landslide.”

As he finally gave up the fight, Simion thanked his more than 5 million voters and promised not to disappoint them in the future. “We were alone against a whole system, alone against everybody, I’m proud of you and I hope I represented you with honor,” he added. Simion called on his voters to stay engaged. “We go until the end, even if it’s hard to feel this bitter taste of defeat,” he said.

When journalists broke the news to Dan that Simion had conceded during a late night press conference, the new president-elect was surprised and relieved. “It is unexpected,” he said, with a smile, as he urged Simion’s voters to join him in the search for unity.

Fight for power

Simion’s initial approach recalled Trump’s refusal to accept defeat after the 2020 U.S. election. At 10:30 p.m., members of Simion’s party received a message alert telling them if the “fraud continues, protest” and proposing a “national protest” on Monday morning “if they try to steal the victory of the Romanian people,” according to Romanian media.  

Earlier Sunday, Simion claimed he had evidence that 1.8 million dead people were on electoral registers, announcing that his party would conduct its own “parallel” vote count to audit the official results. Romania’s Electoral Permanent Authority rejected the claim, saying it had received no concrete examples from any party about dead people appearing on the registers.

Simion reposted one social media message claiming that elderly hospital patients were being threatened with eviction from their medical facility if they did not vote for Dan, and highlighted a nationwide message from the Russian CEO of social network Telegram, claiming France had demanded the platform silence “conservative” voices in Romania. 

Simion was quickly forced to abandon his attempt to deny Dan victory: The margin was too big. His acceptance of defeat appeared to diffuse immediate concerns of yet more turmoil for Romania.

But Dan acknowledged that Romania’s problems — and the disenchantment of millions who backed Simion — are not solved by one election victory. “The tension society … I think will remain for months or years,” he said.

This election follows a constitutional crisis that engulfed Romanian democracy last December. Amid warnings of foreign interference — with suspicion pointing to Russia — Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the first attempt to hold this presidential race.

The shock front-runner at the time, ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, was sympathetic to Moscow and skeptical of NATO and arming Ukraine. 

That court ruling inflamed anger in Romania and dismayed even voters who did not support Georgescu. Simion had embraced Georgescu, who is under investigation, and promised to make him prime minister if he wins. 

In the end, a clear majority of Romanians rejected Simion, Georgescu and their ultranationalist agenda. 

‘Unity and respect’

Dan said he plans to start talking with the four pro-Western parties in the Romanian parliament, and the representatives of ethnic minority parties, to form a majority coalition. He predicted talks would last a few weeks.

As the crowds filling the streets of Bucharest grew, a protective phalanx of police bundled a smiling Dan through the throng to his campaign headquarters in a nearby hotel. Journalists and TV crews carrying cameras and bright lights trailed alongside Dan, while thousands of supporters waved and chanted his name, waving Romanian and European flags.   

Alina Hrițcu, a teacher, said she was happy Dan was set to win because her oldest son would be able to return to Romania for his studies. 

“Nicușor Dan winning means there’s still hope,” she said. “Our son was planning on going to Ireland from the Netherlands instead of returning home to Romania after he saw the results from the first round. Now he will come back here and continue his studies with a master’s degree.”

Her husband Alin added that Dan had proved “he has values that he sustained throughout, despite dirty attacks from all sides.”

Cosmin Rares Șirenate, 21, a political science student in the crowd outside Dan’s HQ, said: “It’s a great joy for me that he won because I’ve seen a huge division and attacks during the past weeks, and it was ugly — attacks against his children and his relationship. I hope he will create a Romania in which we accept each other and there’s equilibrium and understanding.” 

Another student, Ana Petrişor, 21, said: “I don’t think he can do wonders but as long as he’s committed to unity and respect, that’s all that matters.”

This story has been updated.