First round of Romania’s presidential elections

Nationalist candidate and AUR leader George Simion wins first round of presidential elections in Romania. Bucharest’s mayor Nicușor Dan, who ran as an independent, is in second place.

Cristina Mateescu, 05.05.2025, 00:51

The candidate of the populist, ultranatinalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, George Simion, and Bucharest’s mayor Nicușor Dan, who ran as an independent, entered the second round of the presidential elections. With 99% of the votes cast on Sunday counted, George Simion won the first round with 49.94%, followed by Nicușor Dan with 20.95%.

The candidate of the Romania Forward electoral alliance, Crin Antonescu, who ran on behalf of the ruling parties, the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, won 19.97% of the votes.

Voter turnout was 53.21% and 973,129 Romanians in the diaspora went to the ballots.