Romania’s new pro-European President puts country back on Western course

Nicusor Dan will seek to resolve deep societal divisions that were exposed in the tense vote.

A pro-European Union centrist has caused an upset in Romania’s presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channelled people’s anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.

But the country’s new leader Nicusor Dan now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.

Final results from the presidential race showed Mr Dan winning 53.6% of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to US President Donald Trump.

Nicusor Dan waves — Mr Dan’s win has placed the former eastern Bloc back in alignment with the West (AP)

Sunday’s victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.

But as Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania’s presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fuelled a broad rejection of the political establishment.

Mr Dan’s decisive win on Sunday was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Mr Simion – a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighbouring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine – had nearly double Mr Dan’s share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.

Mr Simion’s surge to prominence came after Romania’s first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls.

The right-wing candidate — Mr Simion had styled himself as an analogue of Donald Trump (AP)

The country’s political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.

Capitalising on the furore over the annulment of that election, Mr Simion allied with Mr Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo, and promised to appoint him prime minister if Mr Simion secured the presidency.

While Mr Simion was considered the favourite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7% in Sunday’s ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Mr Dan.

Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania’s large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe. Estimates suggest that between four and five million Romanians live abroad — nearly a quarter of the country’s population. Most emigrated after Romania joined the EU in 2007, seeking relief from high unemployment and low wages.

Mr Simion and Calin Georgescu — Mr Simion had allied himself with Calin Georgescu, winner of the first round of last year’s annulled election (AP)

After Mr Dan is sworn in as president in the coming days, he will face the challenge of nominating a prime minister who can garner the support necessary to form a government — a tall order in a country where anger with establishment politicians led to the emergence of figures like Mr Georgescu and Mr Simion.

Yet Mr Dan himself, who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects and ran independently on a pro-EU ticket to support Ukraine and reaffirm Western ties, is among the critics of Romania’s entrenched political elite, and has argued for fiscal reforms and a crackdown on corruption.

Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, he struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning “a new chapter, and it needs every one of you”.

“It needs experts to get involved in various public policies, it needs people in civil society, it needs new people in politics,” he said.

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, says Mr Dan will face a string of immediate challenges, including putting together a new government in what is now a “totally new political landscape”.

“He will have to push and show reforms while meeting resistance in the state apparatus and being opposed by the new populist parties that now won 5 million votes,” Mr Andrei said.

“He will be under pressure to deliver change to an exasperated Romania while trying to unify a divided country.”