Nicușor Dan, Bucharest’s centrist mayor who ran as an independent, is expected to become Romania’s new president, according to exit polls.
The 55-year-old mathematician edged out hard-right election front-runner George Simion by 55 percent to 45 percent, exit polls suggested Sunday evening.
Dan celebrated the polling result with a crowd of more than 2,000 people packed into the park and streets opposite his Bucharest City Hall mayoral office.
When the results filtered through to the crowd, his supporters screamed and applauded and began chanting: “Nicușor! Nicușor!”
The projections are not official results, which will start coming in from Romania’s election authority in the next few hours.
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Dan’s victory, if confirmed by official results, will calm fears in Brussels and other European capitals that Romania — a country of 19 million people that is a key EU and NATO member — would veer hard to the right.
The election was closely watched in Washington, where Trump administration officials were supportive of the country’s potential right-wing turn. U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticized Romanian authorities in February for canceling the first attempt at holding the presidential election last November.
Romania’s top court decided to annul that election and order a rerun over allegations that the candidate who won the first round, ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, benefited from an illegal online campaign, with potential Russian support. Georgescu and the Russian government have denied the accusations.
Still, Romania’s election authorities barred Georgescu from running again in this election.
Dan’s rival, Simion, won the first round of the presidential election against competition from 10 other candidates by aligning himself closely with Georgescu and condemning the election cancellation as illegal.
Dan’s immediate challenge as president will be to secure a coalition of pro-European parties in the parliament and name a prime minister who will be tasked with implementing tough economic measures to rein in the country’s 9 percent budget deficit.
This story is being updated.
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