The candidate of the Pro-European Union, Nicusor Dan, won the presidential runoff of Romania against a right-wing nationalist, the almost complete electoral data shows electoral data. An enormous participation rate on Sunday played a key role in the tense election that many considered as a geopolitical choice between the East and the West.
The race opposed the front of the head George Simion, the 38 -year -old chief of the right right alliance for the Romanian unit, or Aur, against Dan, the mayor of Bucharest.
It took place for months after the cancellation of the previous elections dive in Romania in his worst political crisis for decades.
After 10.7 million 11.6 million votes were counted, Dan was ahead with 54.19%, while Simion dragged to 45.81%, according to official data. During the vote in the first round on May 4, Simion won almost double the votes as Dan, and many local surveys had predicted that he would get the presidency.
But in a swing which seemed to be a repudiation of the more skeptical approach of Zion to the EU, which Romania joined in 2007, Dan collected nearly 900,000 additional votes to defeat his opponent firmly during the final round.
When the vote closed its doors at 9 p.m., the local time, the official electoral data showed a participation rate of 64%. About 1.64 million Romanians abroad in specially set up polling stations participated in the vote, 660,000 more than in the first round. In the first round of May 4, the final participation rate was 53% of eligible voters.
Dan told journalists that “the elections do not concern politicians” but on the communities and that during the vote on Sunday “, a community of Romanians won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania is going through difficult moments, let’s remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said. “There is also a community that has lost today. A community which is rightly indigenated by the way politics has been carried out in Romania so far.”
Thousands of people gathered in front of Dan’s headquarters near the town hall of Bucharest to wait for the end results, singing “Nicusor!” Whenever his advance widen as more results arrived, the crowd, many waving the flags of the European Union, broke out in cheers.
The political landscape of Romania was turned upside down last year when a high -level court canceled the previous elections in which the original Calin Georgescu original has exceeded first round surveys, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, an accusation that Moscow rejected.
After obtaining the fourth row of the race canceled last year, Simion supported Georgescu, who was prohibited in March from the race for the elections. Simion then reached the first round in the first round of May 4 after having become the standard carrier of the hard right.
Years of endemic corruption and increasing anger towards the political establishment of Romania have fueled an increase in support for anti-establishing figures and on the right, reflecting a wider diagram across Europe. Simion and Dan both had a political career against the former political class of Romania.
