Romania's new pro-European president puts it back on a Western course, but fault lines remain

BUCHAREST, Romania — A pro-European Union centrist pulled off an upset in Romania's presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channeled people's anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.

But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.

Final results from Sunday's presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6% of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to U.S. President Donald Trump.

The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.

But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania's presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fueled a broad rejection of the political establishment.

A tense election

Dan's decisive win on Sunday was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion — a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighboring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine — had nearly double Dan's share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.

Simion's surge to prominence came after Romania's first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country's political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.

Capitalizing on the furor over the annulment of that election, Simion allied with Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo, and promised to appoint him prime minister if Simion secured the presidency.

While Simion was considered the favorite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7% in Sunday's ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Dan.

Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania's large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe. Estimates suggest that between 4 and 5 million Romanians live abroad — nearly a quarter of the country's population. Most emigrated after Romania joined the EU in 2007, seeking relief from high unemployment and low wages.

Fault lines remain

After Dan is sworn in as president in the coming days, he will face the challenge of nominating a prime minister who can garner the support necessary to form a government — a tall order in a country where anger with establishment politicians led to the emergence of figures like Georgescu and Simion.

Yet Dan himself, who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects and ran independently on a pro-EU ticket to support Ukraine and reaffirm Western ties, is among the critics of Romania's entrenched political elite, and has argued for fiscal reforms and a crackdown on corruption.

Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, he struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning ''a new chapter, and it needs every one of you.''

''It needs experts to get involved in various public policies, it needs people in civil society, it needs new people in politics,'' he said.

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, says Dan will face a string of immediate challenges, including putting together a new government in what is now a ''totally new political landscape.''

''He will have to push and show reforms while meeting resistance in the state apparatus and being opposed by the new populist parties that now won 5 million votes,'' Andrei said. ''He will be under pressure to deliver change to an exasperated Romania while trying to unify a divided country.''

Romania in the EU and NATO

As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure — especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe's eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.

Dan said Monday he had a call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and that he conveyed to Rutte that Romania ''will remain a steadfast ally'' within the alliance. ''At the same time, we rely on NATO to guarantee Romania's unwavering security,'' he said.

Many observers saw Sunday's vote as crucial to maintaining Romania's place within the network of Western alliances — especially amid fears that the Trump administration is reconsidering its security commitments to the United States' European partners.

Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian member of the European Parliament, told The Associated Press on Monday that the election result was a relief for many in Brussels, the EU's de-facto capital, and that Romania is now expected to play an active role in the bloc particularly in security and defense.

''There was an erosion of Romania's credibility in the last year,'' Muresan said. ''That is partly restored now through the clear victory of the pro-European candidate.''

Muresan added that Romanians will expect Dan to deliver on promised reforms, but that his clear victory marks a setback for hard-right nationalism.

''People really rallied behind Europe … and understood the risks which extremists pose," he said. ''So much lies now with the new president, who is a unifier, who has campaigned on the basis of facts.''