George Simion of AUR party opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified EU leaders and will face a centrist in run-off vote
An ultranationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified the EU’s leaders, and calls himself Donald Trump’s “natural ally” has won the first round of Romania’s rerun presidential vote and will face a centrist in the run-off, early estimates predict.
Initial projections after polling stations closed on Sunday showed George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vax movement during the pandemic, comfortably in the lead on between 30% and 33% of the vote.
Did the elections go fairly or?
About as fair as you can hope for in this country, I suppose. I imagine the large parties pulled all the stops and still couldn’t grab more than 20%. And I know they didn’t covertly support Simion (yet) because last night they were pissed.