BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Pro-European Union candidate Nicusor Dan on Sunday won Romania’s closely watched presidential runoff against a hard-right nationalist who modeled his campaign after U.S. President Donald Trump. The victory marked a major turnaround in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.
The race pitted front-runner George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, against Dan, the incumbent mayor of Bucharest. It was held months after the cancelation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.
With more than 99% of polling stations reporting, Dan was ahead with 53.9%, while Simion trailed at 46.1%, according to official data. In the first-round vote on May 4, Simion won almost twice as many votes as Dan, and many local surveys predicted he would secure the presidency.