The centrist mayor of Bucharest won Romania’s presidential runoff on Sunday, quashing the ambitions of a far-right Donald Trump loyalist as voters came out in force to ensure that the Black Sea nation held steady on a pro-European path.

Nicusor Dan, an independent and one-time math prodigy, secured more than 54% of the vote in the contest, Romania’s election authority said, with 98% of polling stations reporting. George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, had about 46%.

The decisive victory was fueled by Romania’s biggest voter turnout in a quarter century, blocking a candidate who had embraced Trump’s brand of politics. Simion’s commanding victory in the May 4 first-round contest had many predicting that he was in the best position to win on a campaign promising to shift Romania sharply to the right.

The defeat marked a check on the rise of right-wing forces sweeping Europe — and laid bare the limits of allegiances to Trump’s MAGA brand among voters. The result was less clear in a first-round presidential ballot in Poland, where the centrist mayor of Warsaw was in a tight finish with a nationalist candidate on Sunday as the two headed to a runoff.

Dan, a former activist who has a PhD in mathematics from the Sorbonne in Paris, capitalized on his image as a level-headed leader amid anxiety among voters that a far-right win would damage the country and its economy. He warned that Simion risked isolating the country and ending decades as a reliable member of the European Union and NATO.

“It’s our task to fight to unite the country,” Dan, 55, told a crowd in Bucharest after polling stations closed. “Romania will go through a difficult period and I want to ask you all to have patience and hope.”

Simion, who before the vote repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims about voting irregularities, claimed victory — saying that ballots from Romania’s diaspora would put him on top. With more than 70% of voting stations abroad reporting, Simion held an edge of more than 85,000 votes, well short of what would be needed to close the gap at home.

Turnout climbed to almost 65%, the highest level since the first round of the 2000 presidential election, when post-communist leader Ion Iliescu fended off another right-wing challenge.

Polarisation

Sunday’s runoff was the culmination of months of turmoil — the gravest political crisis since the collapse of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime in 1989. It was a repeat of a ballot held last year, in which a fringe nationalist stunned the establishment with a first-round victory. That prompted charges of interference from Russia and the high court’s annulment of the vote before the second round, triggering waves of protest, particularly from the far right.

The fringe candidate, Calin Georgescu, was banned from running again, creating an opening on the far right for the AUR leader. Dan, who called the Georgescu win a “change of paradigm for all of us,” decided last year to enter the race.

Romania’s government cited a coordinated social media campaign aimed at undermining trust in the election by questioning voting procedures outside the country. Authorities have encountered “no significant problems” beyond isolated issues, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The Bucharest mayor would become the first independent to win the presidency. Even as a centrist, his victory would amount to a rebuke of the political establishment. The mayor surged ahead of the candidate supported by Romania’s ruling parties earlier this month, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

Since then, Dan has racked up endorsements ahead of the runoff and drawn thousands to political rallies. He gained fame in his teens by twice winning the International Mathematical Olympiad. After campaigning against corruption, Dan won election in 2000 to lead Romania’s capital city, where he had protested against rampant property development.

“The pro-European direction is the right one for Romania — and we need to be in Europe not just geographically, but also politically,” said Florin Sandu, a 38-year-old teacher who voted for Dan. “Society is indeed very polarized at this moment, but that’s also due to the rhetoric promoted by Simion.”

Simion spent much of the last week traveling in Europe — to Poland to rally for the country’s nationalist presidential candidate. On Wednesday, he rubbed shoulders in Rome with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — a leader he’s name-checked nearly as much as Trump. In Paris, he slammed President Emmanuel Macron for “dictatorial tendencies.”

The Romanian president is more than a figurehead, representing the country at EU and Nato summits as head of the armed forces, with power to nominate the prime minister and chief prosecutor as well as over the intelligence services.

The next head of state’s biggest challenge will be to stabilize Romania’s $380 billion economy, which has been hit by the political uncertainty. Dan has said he’ll support a pro-European government, so would more easily find a majority in parliament.

The mayor has touted his track record in Bucharest, whose credit rating is four notches above Romania as a whole. S&P Global Ratings signaled this month that Romania may risk losing its investment grade if the political turmoil undermines its ability to curb the fiscal gap.