Hard-right eurosceptic George Simion won the first round of Romania's presidential election re-run, near final results showed, after a ballot seen as a test of the rise of Donald Trump-style nationalism in the European Union.
Ballots from nearly 99.6% of voting stations showed Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, was in second place at around 21%, behind Mr Simion's 40.6%.
They will meet in a runoff on 18 May.
The election results are being closely watched in Brussels and Washington, as Romania has become the latest battleground between the far right and the political establishment.
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The leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians George Simion won the first round of Romania's presidential election with 40.88% of the votes after 99.9% of the ballots were counted, the Permanent Electoral Authority reported.
ReplyDeleteIndependent candidate and Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan came in second with 20.98% of the vote. The sole candidate of the parties of the ruling coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians of Romania, Crin Antonescu, came third with 20.12% of the vote.
Simion also won the first round among Romanians living in the diaspora. With 98.76% of the votes counted, he received 60.55% of the votes, Dan 25.4% and Antonescu 6.84%.
ReplyDeleteThe governing coalition parties are set to hold a meeting Monday afternoon.
Sunday’s vote was part of the election do-over that Romania’s top court ordered in December, after canceling the November ballot over allegations of illegal campaigning and potential Russian interference in favor of Călin Georgescu, an ultranationalist firebrand who came out of nowhere to win the first round.