(AFP) – Campaigning on a promise to put Romania first, far-right presidential front-runner George Simion, a fan of US President Donald Trump, says he hopes to turn last year’s “stolen” election into a victory by winning Sunday’s re-run, channelling simmering frustration over its cancellation. Boasting a direct line to Washington and banking on its support, the leader of the nationalist AUR party has emerged as the favourite to win Sunday’s first round. The re-run follows the exclusion of his far-right ally Calin Georgescu, who topped the ballot in November before the result was annulled by the constitutional court after claims of Russian interference. Senior members of the US administration have criticised the court’s decision.
“It’s a strong signal that gives voters confidence to follow the conservative path in Romania as well,” Simion, 38, told AFP, while juggling a deluge of phone calls and interview requests after returning from a trip abroad to woo Romanian overseas voters. US Vice President JD Vance has led the criticism of the annulment, accusing Romanian authorities of “cancelling elections because you don’t like the result.” This week, Bucharest’s US embassy on social media condemned what it called the “censorship of opponents,” quoting Vance as saying that “democracy is based on the sacred principle that the voice of the people counts.”
Simion, who has repeatedly alleged election fraud, echoed the sentiment, saying that even if there had been action to disrupt the vote, “that doesn’t mean we’re so weak that we have to cancel the elections.” He ruled out the possibility of “another cancellation… because we have the support of the United States.” “But we can expect anything, including massive electoral fraud,” he said — an echo of Trump’s own unfounded claim about the 2021 US election that he lost.
– ‘Opening doors’ –
Simion has branded the constitutional court’s annulment decision a “coup d’etat,” saying democracy had been trampled on. If he becomes president, he said his first step will be to “declassify” the confidential meeting records that led to the vote’s annulment. Having placed fourth in the November ballot, he refused to participate in this week’s TV debates “out of respect for the will of the people,” saying that Georgescu should have been at the table.
Though the far right currently lacks a parliamentary majority, Simion said naming Georgescu as prime minister “is one of the options,” adding that he “has to take the country’s reins.” Describing himself as “more moderate” than Georgescu, Simion has repeatedly insisted on Romania’s “sovereignty.” He has called for territories in Moldova and Ukraine to be returned to Romania and is banned from entering both countries.
In stark contrast to Georgescu, Simion has frequently denounced Russia, while lashing out at Brussels and turning towards the United States. “We’re certainly the only ones who have relations with the State Department” and other US government departments, he said, adding that Romania’s current leaders were “incapable of opening doors.”
Simion, an avowed Trump fan often seen wearing a cap with his idol’s name or the US leader’s slogan “Make America Great Again,” says he seeks to set up an alliance of countries in the spirit of MAGA within the EU. Like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration’s body that purports to track down fraud and wasteful spending in US public bodies, Simion wants to slash jobs in a bid to “invest in defence.” He has vowed to almost double the military budget of Romania, a NATO member country neighbouring war-torn Ukraine, to four percent of its GDP over the next five years.
© 2024 AFP
