{"id":74932,"date":"2025-05-04T22:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74932\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T22:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:35:09","slug":"who-is-george-simion-the-far-right-winner-of-romanias-presidential-election-first-round-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/74932\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is George Simion, the far-right winner of Romania&#8217;s presidential election first round? \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meloni 2.0<\/p>\n<p>Simion has cited right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/romania-hard-right-aur-chief-pitches-himself-as-europes-next-giorgia-meloni-or-donald-trump-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as a political hero<\/a> and called for the \u201cMelonization\u201d of Europe.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/13015400-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6555345\"  \/>George Simion founded his AUR party in 2019 after a failed bid for election to the European Parliament as an independent. | Robert Ghement\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieve me, there will be a Simionization as well,\u201d he told POLITICO last November, shortly before Romania\u2019s annulled presidential election, in which he placed fourth.<\/p>\n<p>In the months since that election result was scrapped \u2014 far-right shock winner C\u0103lin Georgescu was disqualified and a new vote ordered by the country\u2019s constitutional court after the Romanian authorities alleged Russian interference propelled him to victory \u2014 Simion\u2019s profile has soared.<\/p>\n<p>Vigorously denouncing the cancelation of last year\u2019s election, he has framed the do-over as a battle for \u201cdemocracy, the people\u2019s will, the rule of law and the constitutional order,\u201d and vowed to appoint Georgescu to a top role if he is elected.<\/p>\n<p>At a televised debate between presidential candidates last month, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/brussels-playbook\/spains-blackout-hangover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">showed up with a bouquet of flowers<\/a> for Elena Lasconi, the center-left candidate who came second at last year\u2019s annulled vote, before walking out in protest over the canceled election.<\/p>\n<p>The theatrical stunt epitomizes the disruptive politics of Simion, who began his political career marching in the streets and <a href=\"https:\/\/republica.ro\/zbasarabia-e-romania-mesajul-scris-de-george-simion-si-prietenii-sai-zam-vandalizat-sute-de-pereti-cel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spray-painting ultranationalist slogans<\/a> on roads across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s election result is the culmination of his rise from fringe agitator to far-right chief \u2014 and potentially, should he make it to Cotroceni Palace, the presidential residence in Bucharest, the most powerful man in Romania.<\/p>\n<p>Carmen Paun contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meloni 2.0 Simion has cited right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a political hero and called for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[35562,36828,31,32,33,37015,2000,299,33113,2440,2348,25809,2597,13491,36829,5111,46,1438,35563,35564,7338,811,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-74932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-calin-georgescu","9":"tag-crin-antonescu","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-elena-lasconi","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-george-simion","17":"tag-giorgia-meloni","18":"tag-history","19":"tag-mayors","20":"tag-military","21":"tag-moldova","22":"tag-nicusor-dan","23":"tag-parliament","24":"tag-policy","25":"tag-romania","26":"tag-romanian-election-2025","27":"tag-romanian-politics","28":"tag-rule-of-law","29":"tag-security","30":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114451953926477927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}