The far -right candidate largely at the top of the first round, according to an exit poll of the ballot box

At the closure of the polling stations at 9 p.m., George Simion, the leader of the Nationalist Party Aur, was credited with 30 to 33% of the votes.

The results leave little room for suspense. Far -right candidate George Simion arrived on Sunday, May 4 at the top of the first round of the presidential election in Romania, according to two polls carried out at the exit of the polls. At the closure of the polling stations at 9 p.m., the leader of the nationalist party Aur was credited from 30 to 33% of the vote, before the candidate of the pro-European coalition in power, Crin Antonescu, in the elbow with the mayor of Bucharest Nicusor Dan (between 21 and 23%).

“Together we wrote a history page today”, reacted the winner in a video message broadcast at the headquarters of his party in front of singing supporters: “Outside thieves, long live the patriots”. However, it will be “Probably beaten in the second round” On May 18, because he had few voice reserves, commented for AFP the professor of political science Sergiu Miscoiu, predicting a tight race.

Eleven candidates in total broke up this essentially protocol post, but influence in foreign policy, in this member country of the European Union of 19 million inhabitants who have become an essential pillar of NATO since the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

This election comes five months after the extremely rare cancellation of the ballot on November 24, when candidate Calin Georgescu had arisen at the head to everyone’s surprise, plunging the country of Eastern Europe in the political turmoil. Excluded from the election by the Constitutional Court after a massive campaign on Tiktok marred by suspicions of Russian interference, he called for “to recover” the ballot “stolen”after having voted in Mogosoaia, near Bucharest, alongside the one who replaced him, George Simion.

During the campaign, George Simion brandished his youth, his sovereignist rhetoric and his mastery of the Tiktok platform to hope to avenge his now allied Georgescu. If the deputy denies any inclination for Russia, he shares the same aversion to “Brussels bureaucrats“And opposes any military support to kyiv.

On the markets or abroad to convince the important diaspora, this fan of Donald Trump is dreaming in “President Maga” (Make America Great Again), a slogan sometimes displayed on his caps.