Nicușor Dan is Elected President of Romania in Upset Victory
May 19, 2025
Independent candidate Nicușor Dan has been elected President of Romania amidst extremely high turnout and pro-European voter mobilization. Dan defeated George Simion 53.6% to 46.4%, a gap of over 800,000 votes.
Turnout in Moldova was also extremely high with 158,000 people voting as compared to 90,800 in the first round. Moldovan-Romanian voters overwhelmingly supported Nicușor Dan with 88% of votes cast for him as opposed to 12% for Simion.
The victory was met with huge street demonstrations of support for Romania’s place in the European Union. Local and international press have celebrated this as a victory for pro-EU forces, a defeat for extremists and a repudiation of MAGA.
Once reports came in that Nicușor Dan’s victory was a mathematical certainty, supporters outside his campaign headquarters filled the streets chanting “Russia, don't forget, Romania is not yours!”
Soon after polls closed at 9 pm exit polls were released showing a solid lead for Nicușor Dan. As official tallies rolled in he declared victory and made a first statement as president-elect saying:
"I ask you to be patient for the coming period. There will be a difficult period, necessary to economically balance this economy, to lay the foundations of a healthy society."
"There is a community that lost today's elections, a community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania so far. A community that is so outraged that it believes that the solution for Romania at this moment is revolution. And it is our obligation to convince these people that the solution for Romanian society is the reform of the judiciary and the reform of the administration in this country so that Romania can move forward,"
He also made a post on his facebook page specifically thanking voters in Moldova saying:
"A special thought of gratitude and thanks to the Romanian citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Together, with trust and hope, we will continue our European path!"
"Thank you to President Maia Sandu for the congratulatory message and for the support these days,"
In remarks to a journalist he went on to thank Moldovan voters for their turnout in both rounds and promised that “they will have in me a partner for European integration and for everything that is needed: interoperability in transport, in energy.”
President Sandu reacted to the news posting:
"Romania, we walk together with confidence on the European path!"
"Dear Moldovans with Romanian citizenship at home and around the world, you have once again had a strong voice for freedom and democracy! Thank you all for your impressive participation in the elections. The whole world sees what power we have when we are united!"
Congratulations for President-Elect Dan and the Romanian people have poured in from leaders across the EU and from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Simion Concedes… Eventually
As polls closed at 9 pm George Simion immediately declared victory posting:
"I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!"
Even as exit polls showed him behind and preliminary results rolled in showing around a 10 point lead for Dan, Simion continued to declare victory in a series of (now deleted) facebook and X posts declaring first “I am the new President of Romania” and then later calling for mass protests to stop the alleged theft of the election. After midnight, as the scope of his defeat became undeniable, Simion conceded the election.
Throughout the weekend Simion’s camp had continued laying out narratives of a stolen election with a focus on a conspiracy theory of electoral fraud in Moldova. He continued making unsupported claims of “electoral tourism” in Moldova alleging that the Moldovan government was forcing people to vote for Nicușor Dan and was bussing state workers to the polls. This cause Moldova’s Minister of Education Dan Perciun to have to issue a clarification that many of the pictures of busses appearing on far-right social media channels were in fact school field trips. They were part of a "Study in Moldova" campaign that brought hundreds of high school students to Chisinau to visit universities and introduce them to higher education options in Moldova1.
Within Moldova, Agora writes that these messages alleging interference were boosted by various local chapters of Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban’s MAN party. The mayor had publicly criticized President Sandu for endorsing a candidate in the election and called on all Moldovan politicians to remain neutral. At the same time, his party was promoting George Simion and his conspiracy theories on their local channels.
Throughout the weekend Simion continued laying out new allegations about voter fraud including that over 1.5 million dead people were voting in the elections. He made these statements multiple times, both in Romanian and English, while also warning that representatives of the US government were observing the elections2.
In Moldova, 2 promoters of these narratives were Victoria Furtună, leader of the “Moldova Mare” party and Vasile Costiuc, leader of the “Democracy at Home” party. Furtună, who ran for president last year as one of Ilan Shor’s handpicked candidates, alleged voter fraud “at the behest of criminal networks, USAID and Soros.” She announced that her party had requested the opening of a criminal investigation against President Maia Sandu, who she also alleges was “elected through external fraud.”
These allegations were then quickly reported on by Romanian press friendly to George Simion noting only that Furtună was a former anti-corruption prosecutor and conveniently skipping the part where any evidence would be presented or the fact that she is a known Kremlin operative. This formed a sort of circular information flow which purported to gain credibility with each new cycle - while never actually substantiating any of them.
Vasile Costiuc meanwhile alleged transportation of voters and “disguised intimidation” by people he said were wearing headphones at the polls. Romanian outlet G4Media reported on these allegations calling Costiuc George Simion’s man in Moldova and noting him as the leader of the AUR party campaign in the country. G4Media also produced an investigation over the weekend linking Costiuc to “retired” KGB / FSB general Alexandr Kondyakov, implying that he was also acting as a Kremlin agent.
Additional reports have shown that regional chapters of Ilan Shor’s political parties sent out messages to their members calling on them to vote for Simion. In a post on X Simion called these reports “globalist” lies.
“Stop the Steal” Was Drowned Out by High Turnout
With Simion’s declaration of victory at 9 pm building on days of laying the groundwork for a narrative blaming Moldova for a stolen election there was every indication of a plan to contest the results. Elements of this plan were reported in the Romanian press even before the election citing sources familiar with the planning of the AUR and POT parties. Before eventually conceding, Simion was calling for mass street protests today against what he was calling a stolen election.
With all the elements of a “stop the steal” style movement in place it was only the massive turnout of voters that prevented a potential crisis. Overwhelming turnout and support for Nicușor Dan, for Romania’s place in the EU and NATO and against Simion and his brand of politics, neutered any claims of fraud. The fact that these conspiracy theories came to center on Moldova and President Maia Sandu in the final days of the campaign highlights just how perilous a moment this could have been for Moldova.
Today many in Romania and Moldova are celebrating. Europe is breathing a sigh of relief and some truly awful people are angry and sad3. Moldova will continue to have a strong ally and supporter on the road to the country’s EU integration and Ukraine will retain a strong supporter on its border. After weeks of tension, stress and absolutely unprecedented organizing and mobilization the danger has passed.
Much will be written about this election and the attempts that were made to influence the outcome. Moldova will have to gather lessons from this and add them to learnings taken from last year’s election in order to prepare for September. But when the government analyzes these lessons and seeks to craft responses - they will do so with a strong ally in Romania.
This issue of Moldova Matters is supported by Rotary Club Cosmopolitan — Club Secretary Luc Vocks invites you to join an English-speaking (mostly) expat club that meets weekly to hear from engaging speakers and enjoy some light networking. If you're curious to learn more or would like to attend a meeting as a guest, feel free to contact l.vocks@developmentaid.org.
The campaign is trying to promote Moldova as a place to study and encourage more students to go to school here rather than abroad.
US Embassies regularly participate in election observation missions. Simion also claimed that members of the Department of Homeland Security were observing - something that would be much stranger. He did not back that allegation up. At the time of writing the US Embassy has not congratulated Dan on his victory or posted any comments on the outcome at all (also not normal).
Tristan Tate announced that he would leave Romania due to the result. Russian fascist “philosopher” Alexandr Dugin also railed against the outcome on X calling for large-scale revolution to overthrown the EU’s “liberal dictatorship.” Clearly the Kremlin had a bad day as well but these 2 being so angry seemed to sum things up nicely.
Excellent article, thanks!
A good day for Romania, a good day for Moldova and a good day for Europe. But also a strong and sharp reminder that if Europeans want to continue living in free and democratic countries, they have to vote for that, each and every time!