Independent candidate wins presidential race in Romania

The current mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, Sunday won the runoff of Romania’s presidential election

Ştefan Stoica, 19.05.2025, 14:00

Nicuşor Dan, the 55-year-old mathematician turned public figure thanks to his fight against the real estate mafia that was mutilating the architecture of Romania’s capital city, will be the president of Romania.

Thanks to a very good turnout on Sunday, in the second round of the election, he managed to recover the 20% gap in the first round between himself and the leader of AUR, George Simion, and to defeat him by a margin of over 830,000 votes.

It is the victory of those who want a profound change in Romania, Nicuşor Dan said in a speech given near the Bucharest City Hall head office, which he will now leave for the presidential seat.

Nicuşor Dan: “It is your victory, you know it! It is the victory of thousands and thousands of people who have campaigned these days, who have believed that Romania could change for the better. Romania is beginning a new stage and it needs each of you, it needs specialists to get involved in various public policies, it needs people in civil society, it needs new people in politics, and just as you have proven that you can do this campaign, please continue to work for Romania. All our respect for those who had a different option.”

Nicuşor Dan is the second mayor of Bucharest to become president, after Traian Băsescu, but he is the first to do so as an independent. He announced his candidacy in December, right after the Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential election over flaws triggered by foreign interference in favour of the pro-Russian extremist Călin Georgescu.

Dan advocates for a profound change in a state affected by corruption and administrative inefficiency, but says the change should be operated within a democratic framework, with respect for the country’s legitimate institutions, its European Union and NATO membership, and the commitments that Romania has undertaken.

This is what separates him from his former opponent, a radical nationalist and populist who described the constitutional court’s decision to cancel last year’s presidential election as a coup, who bluntly criticises the European Union over alleged attempts to impose a globalist agenda, and who wants to halt aid to Ukraine.

And there is something else that makes Dan and Simion so different from each other: while the former is a man of action who has restored Bucharest’s budget and its attractiveness for investments, the latter stands out exclusively through verbal and even physical aggressiveness and the spreading of toxic ideas on public policies. It is the difference between a mathematician with a PhD from the Sorbonne and a hard-right radical from the football hooligan movement.

For Nicuşor Dan and the prime minister he will nominate, the priority is to put together a governmental team able to mitigate the risks of a major budget slip and to bring the economy back to robust growth. (AMP)