Romanian despair: The dispute over the presidential elections has particularly stirred up the far-right wing

Friday, May 9, 2025

Denik Referendum

George Simion’s far-right party leads Romanian presidential elections, capitalizing on protest votes against established parties.

🔗 Read the article on denikreferendum.cz

[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

George Simion, leader of the far-right AUR party, has taken over voters from Calin Georgescu, who was barred from running due to past legal issues. While officially framed as a fight against Russian interference and for fair elections, the political move primarily benefited the national right. Following the disqualification of Georgescu in previous presidential elections, Simion won the first round of the new May elections with 41% of the vote, significantly more than Georgescu’s prior showing, making him the clear favorite for the second round on May 18th. AUR’s support has also surged in polls for future parliamentary elections. Analysts attribute this success to Simion effectively gathering protest votes from various factions, a sentiment echoed by Simion himself regarding Romanian rights and identity. Romania faces challenges in uniting against the rising far-right due to internal divisions among traditional parties. While Simion is not as eccentric as Georgescu, his political influences include Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and Donald Trump. With the current prime minister stepping down, Simion is widely expected to win the second round, which would bring a significant shift in Romania’s semi-presidential system, potentially leading him to appoint a close ally as prime minister. Politically, Simion is characterized as a national populist pragmatist rather than an extremist, aligning with European conservatives like Meloni but also admiring Orbán while opposing certain military aid to Ukraine.

🔗 Read the original article

Previous page In Murcia, you won't be given the morning-after pill for free, but in England, you will (and here's why)
Next page Europe is choosing to implement anti-deforestation measures for itself, enacting legislation that applies to everyone

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.