Although Brussels can breathe a sigh of relief, at least temporarily, after the victories of pro-European candidates in the elections in Romania, Portugal and in the first round of the presidential race in Poland, right-wing populism continues to grow in all three countries.
Romania's European allies and financial markets welcomed the victory of centrist candidate Nicusor Dan in Sunday's presidential election, in which he defeated hardline Eurosceptic opponent Gheorghe Simion.
After years of rising nationalist sentiment across Europe, the European Union has been watching with growing concern the possibility of Romania's drifting to the far right, according to Reuters. Analysts have warned that a Simion victory could lead to Romania's international isolation and destabilize NATO's eastern flank.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among the first to congratulate Dan on his victory. “The citizens of Romania came out to the polls in droves,” she said on the X network. “They chose the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe.”
Dan, a 55-year-old moderate mathematician and mayor of Bucharest, won about 54 percent of the vote in the country of 19 million, defeating Simeon, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, whose strong first-round showing earlier this month rattled allies and investors.
One of Dan’s first official talks on Monday was with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “I told him that Romania will remain a strong ally within NATO,” Dan said, adding that defense investments would be a priority. “At the same time, we count on NATO to guarantee Romania’s security.”
Dan also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and the President of neighboring Moldova, Maja Sandu, who called the election outcome "a step forward for democratic values and our common European path."
The election took place almost six months after the original vote was annulled due to alleged Russian interference - which Moscow denied - in favor of far-right candidate Calin Đorđescu, who was then banned from running again.
Russian citizen Pavel Durov, founder of the messaging app Telegram, accused the head of France's foreign intelligence service yesterday of asking him to ban conservative votes from Romania ahead of the election, adding that he had rejected the request. The intelligence service has denied the allegations.
When asked about Durov's statements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as reported by Reuters, said that it was nothing new that European countries like France, Britain and Germany interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and that the manner in which the elections were conducted was "strange, to put it mildly."
After Dan is sworn in as president in the coming days, he will face the challenge of appointing a prime minister who can muster the support necessary to form a government - no easy feat in a country where discontent with the establishment has led to the rise of figures like Đorđescu and Simion.
Among those who welcomed the outcome of the election in Romania was Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, where centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Tchaskowski and nationalist Karol Nawrocki will face off in the presidential election on June 1 after the first round of voting on Sunday.
Tšaskovski, the candidate of Tusk's ruling Civic Coalition (KO), narrowly won Sunday ahead of Navrocki, the candidate supported by the conservative-nationalist PiS, with 31,4 percent to 29,5 percent of the vote - a significantly smaller margin than polls had predicted.
The strong growth in support for far-right candidates and anti-establishment movements left the second round completely uncertain.
Tšaskovski and Navrocki already started fighting for the support of voters for the candidates who dropped out of the race yesterday.
The far right achieved its best result yet. Slavomir Mencen of the Confederation party and Gregož Braun, who caused an international scandal in 2023 when he extinguished a Hanukkah candle in parliament with a fire extinguisher, together won more than 21% of the vote.
Many young voters have expressed disappointment with the dominance of the big parties - KO and PiS - and Menzen has particularly attracted them with his economic liberalism, Euroscepticism and anti-immigrant agenda, which he claims offers an alternative to the existing order.
A broad coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power in 2023 promising to restore relations with the EU and roll back judicial reforms introduced by PiS, which the EU claimed undermined democracy.
However, Tusk's reform agenda is hampered by the veto power of outgoing president, PiS ally Andrzej Duda.
In Portugal, where parliamentary elections were held on Sunday, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called for consultations with political parties yesterday, after the general election produced another minority government, but also an unprecedented result for the populist party Dosta, further fueling the wave of far-right strength in Europe.
The center-right Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, won 89 seats in the 230-seat parliament, winning Sunday's election. However, the result falls short of a majority in parliament and leaves it vulnerable to opposition parties that ousted it in a no-confidence vote two months ago after less than a year in power.
Portugal's third general election in three years offered little hope of ending the worst period of political instability in the European Union nation of 10,6 million in decades.
"The Portuguese people do not want any more early elections," said Democratic Alliance leader and future Prime Minister Luis Montenegro on Sunday evening, appealing to opposition parties to allow him to serve a full four-year term.
The Šega party's result shook up the traditional balance of power, following a trend already present across Europe, where parties like France's National Rally, Brothers of Italy, and Alternative for Germany have become part of the political mainstream.
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