Aleksandar Miladinovic
Associate journalist
After three rounds of voting for a new president, Romania has elected its sixth president since the fall of communism.
In the weighing of the strengths of two independent candidates, Nikusor Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, was by far the most successful., known as a pro-European fighter against corruption.
Dan won almost 54 percent of the vote, while Đorđe Simion was rounded up by just over 46 percent of voters.
"Romania is turning a new page starting tomorrow, and for that we need all of you."
"We have to build this country together, no matter who you voted for," Dan told enthusiastic supporters on election night.
His rival, the leader of a right-wing party who presents himself as the "Romanian Trump", admitted defeat by posting on social media, where he had mainly campaigned, with the message that "the battle is lost, but not the war."
This was the third vote for the president of Romania, as the first, in November 2024, was annulled because Calin Đorđescu, the then-winning far-right candidate, violated campaign finance rules and was also accused of receiving illegal aid from Russia.
Presidential powers in Romania are greater than in Serbia or Montenegro because the president, in addition to foreign policy and defense, also has an important role in proposing the prime minister and forming the government.
This will be one of Nikusor Dan's first tasks in his new position, as Marcel Colaku, the previous Prime Minister, resigned after the first round of elections and the poor results of the parties that make up the ruling majority.
'A lesson in democracy'
Dayana and Radu could hardly wait for the preliminary results to celebrate them on the streets of Bucharest and - breathed a sigh of relief.
"I was hoping for this because I love Europe, the European Union, to be able to travel freely, and maybe even go work abroad," says the girl born and raised in the Romanian capital.
Holding the Romanian flag tightly, Radu says that the most important thing to him is how his country will be represented in the world.
"Nikușor represents a calm, rational, educated Romania and I would like the world to see us that way, to see such a president who talks to other leaders."
However, Nikusor Dan came to this opportunity through a thorny path: Đorđe Simion won around 40 percent of the vote in the first round, while he barely made it into the second round with 21 percent.
From just under two million votes won in the first round, he gained the support of more than six million voters in two weeks.
"This was a lesson about democracy and how important it is for people to get involved, not only during elections, but also in the meantime."
"It is also important not to ignore the signs that could be seen, what the extreme right was ready to do - all of this should have been punished every time, and not turned a blind eye and hoped that the problem would go away," says Katerina Preda, associate professor at the Bucharest Faculty of Political Sciences.
That is why, he says, the case of Romania will be the subject of science.
"Nikusor Dan's campaign will become a subject of research in political science studies: how to go from an outsider to a clear and undisputed winner in just two weeks."
"The lesson is that fighting is necessary even when there seems little hope, that one should not give up easily."
Watch the video: When a BBC journalist is interrupted by a presidential candidate in the Romanian elections
Why the turnaround?
When Đorđe Simion won almost twice as many votes as Dan in the first round of the election, some were ready to declare him the winner in advance in the decisive round.
Yet, for many Romanians, such a result had the effect of a wake-up call.
"The vote in the first round was an expression of pure anger and disappointment in the quality of the government, the system, a real emotional protest vote, not a completely rational one."
"However, after the first round, when it became clear how far apart the two sides were in terms of basic values, people began to behave more rationally," says Oana Popescu, director of the GlobalFocus Center in Bucharest.
She says that the sudden weakening of the leu, the local currency, also contributed to everything, which suddenly led to a rise in prices and higher credit costs - already after the first round of elections.
"People have realized that it's one thing to raise your voice in protest and demand radical changes if it doesn't cost you anything, but it's quite another if you have to pay for it out of your own pocket."
"Populists don't offer solutions for something like that," she says.
When turnout in the second round reached almost 65 percent of registered voters, compared to just over 53 percent in the first round, for those familiar with the situation, the matter was clear.
The political mobilization of voters on the ground brought the upper hand, and everything was cemented by the behavior of the candidates themselves.
"Nikušor Dan was very good in the only debate in which the candidates met."
"In the last week, although several debates were scheduled, Simion decided not to appear in any of them, but to travel abroad, which backfired on him - people thought he was running away from the debate," believes Alexandru Volac, associate professor at the University of Bucharest.
You can also see what election night looked like from Aleksandar MIladinović's perspective.
https://twitter.com/bbcnasrpskom/status/1924212369820946685
How to unite a divided country?
The uncompromising election campaign, primarily of the defeated right-wing candidate, exposed deep divisions in Romanian society.
The two poles are far apart on almost all issues: from relations towards Romania's past, relations towards its neighbors, the war in Ukraine, to the country's European and NATO future.
"We've had divisions before, maybe they were just grouped differently on different issues - that's not foreign to us."
"Much will depend on Dan's ability to unite the country until the next parliamentary and local elections in 2028," believes Aleksandru Volak.
In order to bridge divisions, Volaku believes that it is necessary to change the basic way of communication between the government and citizens.
"The government and the president must be more open to the public, because closedness was one of the key mistakes of the previous government and president, which created a chasm in relations between the government and citizens."
“The long-standing problem of corruption also contributed to this anti-system vote.”
The vote for Romania's sixth president showed that the system that worked for the previous five has been destroyed - neither of the two candidates in the finals belong to the traditional parties that have ruled Romania for more than three decades.
"It is very important that Dan forms a political party, because without it he will be a very weak president."
"Romania needs new parties, primarily because of young people who have now discovered how great politics actually is when we do good things together for other people," says political scientist Katerina Preda.
Dan has already had experience in founding a party, whose main goal was to fight corruption.
However, after just a few months, he left the party due to disagreements at the top.
What is the lesson for Europe?
Waiting for the ballots to be counted, it wasn't just Romania that was awake - eyes were wide open all over Europe.
If he had won, Đorđe Simion promised to end aid to Ukraine in defense against Russian aggression, consider NATO membership, have different relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin, and cooperate with far-right parties across the continent.
Simion saw allies in Europe in Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban and Robert Fico, the Hungarian and Slovak Prime Ministers, and the Polish conservatives.
"All societies in Europe are divided, in this or similar ways, and then others, like Russia, could easily take advantage of that."
"Russia did not create the problem in Romania, it is not responsible for the crisis, it just contributed enough to bring things to the brink - Russia will never fail to take advantage of any crisis," Oana Popescu points out.
Therefore, she believes that the elections in Romania are an important lesson beyond the country's borders.
"Political parties across Europe are increasingly less representative of their own membership, their programs do not respond to the needs of society, and this gap is very large."
"Leaders should reach out to their members, start from the beginning, and address the concerns of the people, not the comfort of the elites," she concludes.
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- Final decision: Calin Đorđescu cannot participate in the repeat presidential elections in Romania
- Investigation into alleged interference in the Romanian presidential election and cyberattacks from Russia
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Bonus video:
