Pro-EU centrist Nicuşor Dan won Romania’s presidential run-off on Sunday, defeating an ultranationalist Eurosceptic who had topped the first round and raised fears about the country’s pro-western orientation.
Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and mayor of the capital Bucharest, secured more than 54 per cent of the vote compared with nearly 46 per cent for George Simion, a former football hooligan turned leader of the far-right AUR party, after more than 97 per cent of votes had been counted.
The mayor’s victory caps months of political and economic turmoil triggered by the cancellation of a previous vote due to alleged Russian interference, which put Bucharest in Moscow’s and Washington’s crosshairs and split the nation over its way forward.