Romania’s European allies and markets welcomed centrist Nicusor Dan’s presidential election victory over the euroskeptic hard-right on Sunday, relieved that the EU member avoided a lurch to a Donald Trump-inspired political path.
Dan, a softly spoken 55-year-old mathematician and Bucharest mayor, won 54 percent of the votes in the nation of 19 million, beating rival George Simion, a vocal Trump admirer whose strong showing in the first round of voting this month had rattled allies and investors.
Dan had campaigned on a pledge to fight corruption, maintain support for Ukraine — where Romania has played an important logistical role — and keep the country firmly within the European mainstream.
Photo: AP
In contrast, Simion, a 38-year-old nationalist, had been critical of EU leadership and opposed military aid to Ukraine, and his strong position before Sunday’s run-off had caused the collapse of Romania’s pro-Western coalition government.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was one of the first to congratulate Dan.
“The Romanian people have turned out massively to the polls,” she wrote on X. “They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe.”
European Council President Antonio Costa said he welcomed working with Dan.
“From city hall to the table of the European Council,” he said. “This is a strong signal of Romanians’ attachment to the European project.”
Moldovan President Maia Sandu called the result “a step forward for democratic values and our shared European path.”
After years of rising nationalist sentiment in Europe, the EU was increasingly uneasy about the prospect of a shift to the hard-right in Romania.
Analysts had said victory for Simion would have risked isolating Romania abroad and destabilizing NATO’s eastern flank.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk applauded the result, as did French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Despite numerous attempts at manipulation, Romanians tonight chose democracy, the rule of law, and the European Union,” Macron wrote on X, in Romanian.
The election took place nearly six months after the initial ballot was canceled because of alleged Russian interference — denied by Moscow — in favor of far-right frontrunner Calin Georgescu, who was banned from standing again.
Russian-born Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, accused the head of France’s foreign intelligence agency of asking him to ban Romanian conservative voices ahead of the election, adding that he refused the request.
The intelligence agency denied the allegations.
Asked about Durov’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was not news that European states such as France, Britain and Germany interfered in the affairs of other countries and said that the vote’s conduct had been “strange, to say the least,” state news agency TASS reported.
Analyst Radu Magdin said Dan’s contrast to Simion’s bluster helped as the campaign drew to a close and he would pursue a common sense foreign policy.
“He will cultivate the Trump administration as much as possible while remaining a staunch European,” Magdin said.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
‘REALLY PROUD’: Nvidia would not be possible without Taiwan, Huang said, adding that TSMC would be increasing its capacity by 100 percent Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), capping a visit to the country of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step. Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant, where he had hosted suppliers for a “trillion-dollar dinner,” named after the market capitalization of those firms attending, Huang said this would be another good year for business. “TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot
RSS