In upset, centrist wins Romania’s presidential election

In a setback for Europe’s surging nationalist forces, Nicusor Dan, a centrist mayor and former mathematics professor, on Sunday won the presidential election in Romania, defeating a hard-right candidate who is aligned with President Donald Trump and has opposed military aid to Ukraine.

With more than 98% of ballots counted, preliminary official results gave 54% of the vote in the presidential runoff to Dan, 55, the mayor of Romania’s capital, Bucharest. His opponent, George Simion, a nationalist and fervent admirer of Trump’s who had been widely seen as the front-runner, drew only 46%.

As he slipped behind Dan in early counting, Simion told supporters that “we are the clear winners of these elections.” He called for national protests should the final count show him as the loser, railing against what he said was an attempt “to steal the victory of the Romanian people.”

Dan’s victory will probably calm fears in Europe’s political mainstream that Romania, which borders Ukraine and plays a vital role in defending NATO’s eastern flank against Russia, might join Hungary and Slovakia in opposing help for Ukraine and in cozying up to Moscow.

But it will probably inflame Romania’s nationalist camp and its supporters abroad, including Vice President JD Vance, and stoke accusations that the system is rigged. Last year, a Romanian court ordered a last-minute cancellation of a presidential election that an ultranationalist appeared well positioned to win.

In the final days of the campaign, as opinion polls showed the race tightening, Simion laid the groundwork for a Romanian version of Trump’s “stop the steal” efforts in 2020. He insisted that only electoral fraud could prevent him from winning.

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