Simion and Dan in the second round of elections: Romanian Trump or Rational politician?

After the centralization of 99.99 percent of the records from the polling stations after yesterday's first round of presidential elections, the results published by AEP show that Simion won 40.94 percent of the votes, while Nicușor Dan won 20.99 percent of the votes, Romanian portal Digi24 reports.

More precisely, Simion, who is the president of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), won 3,856,981 votes, while 1,976,926 Romanians voted for the mayor of the capital.

From the data published this morning on the AEP platform, it is concluded that votes from only three polling stations abroad still need to be counted.

Simion (38) opposes providing military aid to neighboring Ukraine, criticizes EU leadership and supports Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement.

As a conservative Christian, he supported the failed referendum in 2018 that aimed to ban same-sex marriage.

Simeon's victory could isolate Romania abroad, reduce private investment and make the country a less predictable and less cooperative NATO member in terms of military aid to Kyiv, Reuters estimates, adding that it would benefit Russia while it is waging a war in Ukraine.

If elected, Simion said he would announce how much Romania contributed to the war effort in Ukraine at the expense of subsidies for Romanian children and pensions.

In addition, he supported the return of Romania to its 1940 borders, which include territories that are now part of Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine, and was barred from entering the latter two countries.

He started his political career as an activist, advocating for the unification of Romania and Moldova among Bucharest football hooligans to found the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR) party in 2019.

Nicușor Dan, mayor of Bucharest, is an independent progressive-liberal politician, who made a name for himself as an activist against the Bucharest real estate mafia and co-founder of the green-liberal protest party Union Save Romania (USR).

Dan has a doctorate in mathematics and is considered an honest, non-corrupt, but not too successful in his position as mayor of Bucharest, because he alone fights against the powerful apparatus.

He is considered a sensible, rational politician, who approaches problems analytically and strives for long-term solutions, and advocates unconditional support for Ukraine.

Repeated presidential elections were held in Romania yesterday. The turnout was higher than 53 percent.

The second round of elections is planned for May 18, 2025.