Romanian surprise: Why did the far right fall short in presidential election?

The Debate

Two weeks after the far right's George Simion garnered a whopping 41 percent in the first round of presidential elections, a surge in voter turnout instead propelled the pro-EU mayor of Bucharest Nicosur Dan onto a rocky road to victory.

Dan wasn’t even a candidate when the constitutional council annulled last November's first round of voting and barred pro-Russian TikTok star Calin Georgescu over foreign meddling and campaign financing records that claimed zero spending whatsoever. The call to do over the election drew criticism from the likes of JD Vance and Elon Musk in the US but also from some European liberals who felt the issue should have been sorted at the ballot box. We’ll ask how this result’s going down and more broadly about a onetime Soviet bloc dictatorship often dogged by corruption and that’s felt the growing pains of EU membership. What next for a frontline state to the war in Ukraine and how does the rest of Europe address the grievances of citizens in a fast-changing world?

Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Jimena Morales-Velasco.