The first of the two candidates in the runoff is 38-year-old George Simion, head of the extreme right-wing, pro-Russian Alliance for the Union of Romanians party.
A former football hooligan, Simion now describes himself as a “sovereignist” and is a fan of both US President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
He was the clear winner of the first round of the election on May 4, garnering almost 41% of the vote.
His opponent on Sunday is 55-year-old Nicusor Dan, the independent mayor of Bucharest. Dan is a mathematician, former anti-corruption activist and a man with clear pro-European, largely liberal and at times moderately conservative positions.
He came second in the first round, albeit far behind Simion on 21%.
As an outsider I most definatly am missing something but it’s mad to me that Romania, being one of the few countries to successfully boot Russia out of their country would even toy with this. I guess it’s similar to what other countries have seen like Reform in the UK etc
The funny thing is, we’re still quite rusophobic. You’ll find few people that approve of russia or putin. Russian talking points and propaganda however, that we gobble by the bucket.
For what it’s worth, Simion seems to have a more pro EU, pro NATO stance than the rest of his party. He has called Putin a war criminal, called for greater economic sanctions against Russia, expulsion of the Russian ambassador, and has called Russia the greatest threat for Europe. So he is very much in line with the EU right, like Meloni.
This is what underfunding education for decades and TikTok does to a country. Romania has the highest number of TikTok users per capita in Europe.
There are always stupid people. If someone like Russia is allowed to intentionally manipulate them, they can be made into puppets.