The candidate has changed, but not the result. Sunday, Romanians were called to the ballot box for the first round of the presidential election, five months after the cancellation of the initial election for suspicions of Russian interference. The country’s nationalist turn seems to be confirmed and he now carries the face of George Simion. The far -right candidate has collected more than 40 % of the vote and therefore qualified easily for the second round.
At 38, the one who had only happened fourth in the November election, stood out for his proximity to Donald Trump’s ideas – he posted more than once with a cap in his effigy. Like the republican billionaire and his deep state obsession, George Simion promises to reveal behind the scenes of the government, assuring that he would declare the documents related to the cancellation of the first round last November. Like him, too, he brandished the fear of “massive electoral fraud”. And like him, he wants to track down what he considers unnecessary expenses in the state budget, removing positions.
Nationalist conspiracy and tags
Present during the nomination of the new President of the United States last January – alongside, in particular, of Marion Maréchal – he claims to have direct discussions with Washington. On the old continent, his political model is the Italian Giorgia Meloni. Last November, he even assumed politico wanting to lead a “similarization” of Europe, just as there had been a “melonization”.
-George Simion is not a novice in politics. MP since 2020, he had taken the lead of the Alliance for the Romanian unit – left he founded – the previous year. If he refuses the extreme right label, qualifying more readily as a “conservative”, he nevertheless has all the ideological paraphernalia: sovereignist, nationalist, opposed to marriage for all … He also stood out during the COVVI-19 crisis for his conspiratorial theories and his opposition to vaccination.
Eurosceptic claimed, it is against the aid provided by Brussels to Ukraine, while ensuring that he has no connection with Russia. A line that is close to that of the Hungarian Viktor Orbán. Turning away from the old continent, he wishes, on the other hand, to turn his country to the United States, and criticizes the current Romanian government for its inability to “open doors”. Internationally, George Simion also stands out for expansionist nationalism: he pleaded for territories of Moldova and Ukraine to be attached to Romania. The presidential candidate is also banished from these two countries. In 2024, he even admitted to being one of the authors of many nationalist tags claiming “Bessarabia (A region of Moldova) is Romania ”.
When the first round, who had seen Calin Georgescu arriving at the top, was canceled, George Simion was one of those who shouted in the coup d’etat. He even refused to participate in televised debates at the end of the campaign, arguing that the fallen far right candidate should have been in his place. Since then, he has not dismissed the hypothesis of appointing him Prime Minister if he won the second round of the presidential election on May 18.
