Hard-right candidate wins first round of Romania’s election rerun — exit polls

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Grand right leader George Simon won the first round of the presidential elections for Romania, according to the exit polls, and one of the European Union supporters will face the vote on the flow on May 18.

SIMION won 33 percent, according to a survey of CRRS, with Crin Antonescu, the joint candidate for three central government parties, by 23 percent. However, it appears that the race for the second place is on the edge of a knife.

He also put a survey of Avangarde Simon in the foreground by 33 percent, but he said that Antonisco was the neck and neck with Nikuor Dan, the municipality of the independent liberal capital, by 23 percent.

The vote was re -voted after the success of the extremist politician Călin Georgescu in polling in the first round in November by the Constitutional Court due to the allegations of Russian intervention. Georgsku, an ally of Simon, was then prevented from standing in the new polling.

The November result management was severely exposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump, as Vice President JD Vance said it was an example of the failure of the liberal elite in Europe to support democratic freedoms.

The temporary results are expected to be announced later on Sunday, with the announcement of a final balance on Monday morning. There were 11 candidates in total.

Analysts have warned that exit polls did not reflect a high percentage of turnout by the Romanians abroad, as voters in the diaspora tend to prefer Simon or Dan. Almost 1 million Romanian outside the country voted.

Georgsku is the popular support of Simon, the leader of the Aur National Party, which was approved by his campaign by Georgsco, is another sign of the deep hope of the Romanian voters with the prevailing political elites, which has participated in power since the end of communism.

Simon, a right -wing populist of wood riding, told FT on Sunday that if his boss is elected, he will try to return Georgsco to a leadership position to reflect his popularity.

“In democracy, you let people decide.” “Thus, as a president, I can change the members of the Constitutional Court and members of secret services, so that I can make sure of the fair elections and I can be a mediator to find the majority in parliament. This is the way we can think about his existence as prime minister.”

The SIMION competitor is expected to try to form an alliance from all the prevailing forces to defeat SIMION, but it may struggle to do so.

Simon said: “I am not very worried about such an alliance,” Simon said. “This is just a smoke bomb, conversion [from the fact] I am not the extremist, riot, and isolation they depict me. “

In the second round, Simon could capture voters from former Prime Minister Victor Punta, a left -wing politician who turned into Trump’s fans, who won 15 percent on Sunday, according to exit polls.

Georgsco surveyed more than 40 percent before being prevented from running again in March. In a unit show, the two men threw voting cards together in a Buchaest suburb where some supporters of the Pro-EGEORGESCU were chanted.

The cancellation pushed Romania to a political crisis in a sensitive moment. Credit classification expectations have been recently reduced to negative by Moody’s. It is in urgent need of reforms because it is struggling to address the highest budget deficit in the European Union.

Romania is one of the main contributors to NATO’s efforts to contain Russian maneuvers in the Black Sea region, which is an important way to export from Ukraine and have provided military assistance to its neighbor.

With the progress of the vote on Sunday, a group of Russian infiltrators claimed that it had closed web sites for many government ministries and the Antonescu campaign page. The National Cyber ​​Security Center said in a statement that the National Center for Cyber ​​Security in a statement that the National Center for Cyber ​​Security in a statement that the National Center for Cyber ​​Security in a statement that the attack of the service denial was thwarted quickly.