Right populist George Simion declares himself the winner

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Lerato Khumalo

Initially declared the winner

Right -wing extremist admits defeat in Romania

Updated on May 19, 2025 – 02:15 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.

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The right -wing populist George Simion has significantly lost the presidential election in Romania. (Source: Imago/Vlad Bereholschi)

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According to forecasts, Nicușor Dan won the presidential election in Romania. His right -wing populist opposite candidate Simion is six percent behind him in the forecasts, but still declares himself to be the election winner.

After the runoff election around the presidential office in Romania, the ultra-right candidate George Simion granted his defeat to his pro-European rival Nicusor Dan. “I want to congratulate my opponent, Nicusor Dan,” said Simion on Monday night in a video published in the online network. “He won the election and that was the will of the Romanian people.”

Simion, who had been a favorite in the runoff election of the repeated presidential election, received around 46 percent of the vote in the runoff election on Sunday. The independent Bucharest mayor Dan, on the other hand, came to almost 54 percent of the vote.

Immediately after the election, both candidates had initially declared themselves the winner. After the polling stations, Simion said on Sunday evening that he had 400,000 votes ahead of Dan. He also spoke of election fraud.

“We are the clear winners of this choice. We claim this victory in the name of the Romanian people,” the controversial candidate called to his followers in Bucharest in front of running TV cameras. After counting, the 38-year-old was significantly behind Dan after the counting of around 88 percent of the constituencies, as the central electoral office in Bucharest announced. Afterwards, two opinion research institutes had also seen first place from the start.

Dan is a decisive supporter of the EU and NATO. He explained that Romania’s support for Ukraine was essential for his own security in view of the growing Russian threat.

In the headquarters of the pro-European Dan in a park in Bucharest, the 50-year-old announced “the victory of a community of Romanians who long for a profound change”. “Let’s enjoy this evening and rebuild Romania from tomorrow,” he said in front of his followers who chanted “Europe” and “unity”.

Simion, on the other hand, is considered a right -wing icon. He had won the first round of the presidential election two weeks ago. This had led to the collapse of a pro -western coalition government, which in turn had triggered significant capital outflows from the country.

Even before the second round of the presidential elections, Simion had assumed the Romanian authorities attempts to be fraud without evidence. The news portal “G4Media.ro”, citing unnamed sources within Simion’s Party Aur, reported that there are plans to contest the election if your candidate is officially declared a loser. Only partial count results will be published in the course of the evening. At the first round of the presidential election in early May, the final result was determined the morning after.

The NATO and EU member state of Romania has been in a political crisis for months. In November, the previously largely unknown right-wing radical and pro-Russian Călin Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of the presidential election. However, the Constitutional Court declared the urn to be invalid for suspected Russia’s election interference, Georgescu was excluded from the election. In his place, Simion now took up as a candidate for the right warehouse.

The 38-year-old rejects military aid for the neighboring country Ukraine attacked by Russia, and he also demands territorial restoration within the borders of Great Romania-the former kingdom (1881 to 1947) also included Moldova and parts of Bulgaria and Ukraine before the Second World War. According to observers, Simion is likely to isolate Romania, private investments could come to a standstill and destabilize the NATO east flank.

In contrast to the Georgescu, which was still considered to be radical, Simion had sometimes also criticized Russia, but at the same time he was shouting against Brussels and was full of praise for the US Republicans. The self-declared fan of US President Donald Trump had repeatedly said that the first “Maga President” would want to become Romania and always see the country first. He alluded to Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” (“makes America great again”). He also wanted to set up a “Maga alliance” within the EU with other countries.