Pro-EU centrist beats Trump acolyte in Romania vote

What happened

The centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, won Romania's presidency Sunday, defeating hard-right nationalist George Simion 54% to 46%. Simion, considered the front-runner after getting the most votes in the first round two weeks ago, conceded defeat Sunday night after initially claiming victory and then alleging voter fraud. Voter turnout, at 65%, was the highest since 1996. Poland and Portugal also voted Sunday.

Who said what

The victory of Dan, a soft-spoken former math professor and political independent, is a "setback for Europe's surging nationalist forces," The New York Times said, and it "will likely calm fears in Europe's political mainstream" that Romania "might join Hungary and Slovakia in opposing help for Ukraine and in cozying up to Moscow." Dan, 55, ran as an anticorruption moderate conservative committed to the European Union and NATO.

Simion had modeled his campaign on President Donald Trump's and "promised to 'Make Romania Great Again,'" The Wall Street Journal said. He spent a week in the U.S. "at the height of the campaign," giving interviews to MAGA figures like Steve Bannon and telling a conservative U.S. magazine that he and Polish right-wing presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki could form a pro-Trump alliance in Europe. Nawrocki advanced to the June 1 runoff election Sunday, coming a close second to liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

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This "really strong result" for Dan is "another example of the positive Trump effect on European election cycles where concerns about the political and policy direction moving in a MAGA-like way have mobilized voters," Eurasia Group's Mujtaba Rahman told Reuters.

What next?

Dan told supporters "there will be a difficult period ahead" to form a majority government and find a prime minister who can steer parliament toward reducing Romania's budget deficit. In Poland, Trzaskowski "could face an uphill struggle in the runoff," the Times said, as Nawrocki's 29% plus the 21% won by two far-right candidates adds up to a right-wing majority. In Portugal, the ruling center-right Democratic Alliance won the most seats in parliament but once more failed to secure a majority, dashing hopes that the country's third election in three years would "end the worst spell of political instability for decades," The Associated Press said.