Pro-West Candidate Nicușor Dan Wins Romanian Presidential Election

Romanian pro-Western candidate and Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan won the country’s presidential election on Sunday, defeating the right-wing candidate George Simion with roughly 54% of the vote.

For Context: Simion won the first round of elections in early May with 41% of the vote. Romania previously held the first round of presidential elections in December, where right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu delivered a surprise victory, but Romania’s top court nullified the results and cited Russian interference as its reason. In February, Georgescu was arrested on criminal charges, and in March, he was barred from running again.

Key Quotes: Dan said, “My message to those who lost today, our full respect to those who had another option. We have to build Romania together, regardless of political options, with the Romanians in Romania, diaspora, (Republic of) Moldova, and the Romanians in the neighbouring countries.” Simion said, “It’s a bitter feeling, but this election is just the beginning.”

Foreign Meddling?: Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who was arrested in France in August, said on Sunday that the French government asked him to “ban conservative voices in Romania,” but that he “refused.” "We didn’t block protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe” he added. In the final hours of voting on Sunday, Romanian foreign ministry spokesperson Andrei Tarnea accused Russia of interfering in the election, “yet again” via a “viral campaign of fake news on Telegram & other social media platforms.”

How The Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum have described Dan as “pro-EU” and “pro-West.” Euronews (Center bias) and CNN (Lean Left) referred to Simion as “hard right,” while RT (Lean Right) referred to him as “right wing.” Euronews struck a positive tone towards the result, but wrote that “the deep divisions in fractured Romanian society” and “looming economic turmoil” pose a “massive challenge” to Dan.