Romania: Far-Right Leader Wins First Round of Rerun Election

George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, won the first round of Romania’s presidential election rerun on Sunday and will face second-place winner Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan in a runoff on May 18.

• Simion won 40.5 percent of the vote on Sunday.
• Dan won 20.8 percent.
• The governing coalition’s joint candidate, Crin Antonescu, won 20.3 percent.

Russia: Simion is a close ally to Călin Georgescu who had won Romania’s presidential election back in November, but that election was annulled. Declassified Romanian intelligence documents revealed there were over 85,000 cyberattacks on the November election.

A second election was canceled in December after it was discovered to be fraught with Russian hacking.

Romanian’s National Cybersecurity Directorate reported similar Russian hacks to the election this Sunday, including cyberattacks on Antonescu’s and Dan’s campaign websites.

Who is Simion? George Simion is a hard-right leader who is critical of European Union leadership and opposes sending military aid to Ukraine. He is also a strong supporter of United States President Donald Trump.

Europe’s concern: As an EU member bordering Ukraine, Romanian’s government and its relationships with Russia and the U.S. are a concern for Europe. This rerun election has the EU’s full backing.

To learn more, read “Who Stole the Romanian Election?”