By Luiza Ilie, Elizaveta Gladun
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan’s decision to attend a string of debates last week shunned by his hard-right rival appeared to pay off on Sunday when the pro-European Union centrist emerged victorious in the country’s presidential run-off election.
Analysts said Dan’s earnestness while sitting across an empty chair where George Simion should have sat is in large part what convinced Romanians to show up to the polls in the greatest turnout in 25 years.
“While Dan was driven, open and anti-populist, Simion ran the worst possible campaign by … refusing dialogue, and radicalizing voters,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.
The 55-year-old centrist, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption, is staunchly in favor of Romania’s membership in the EU and NATO, and has said his country’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security against a growing Russian threat.
Simion, a 38-year-old nationalist who opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is critical of EU leadership, decisively led the first presidential election round, causing the collapse of a pro-Western coalition government and triggering significant capital outflows.
“It is your victory,” an emotional Dan told thousands of supporters chanting his name outside his campaign headquarters in Bucharest after the vote count showed he had won.
“Romania starts a new phase tomorrow and it needs each of you. It needs specialists to get involved in public policies, … people in civil society and new people in politics.”
Dan, a quiet Sorbonne-educated mathematician, had a history of activism against rampant real estate development and corruption before entering politics. Described as calm and methodical, he is often seen walking his daughter to school.
His first challenge will be to appoint a prime minister and quickly see a new governing majority form to address the EU’s largest budget deficit and try to avoid a rating downgrade from the last rung of investment grade.
As an independent two-term mayor, he has experience negotiating majorities and a track record of being driven, having run for the top job in Romania’s capital twice before being elected on his third try.
“Elections are not about politicians, they are about communities. And the community that won today wants profound changes,” Dan said, adding that Romanians would need to be patient while the changes he sought were implemented.
The vote on Sunday ended an extended election season that began when Calin Georgescu, an obscure far-right and pro-Russian candidate, unexpectedly won the first round of an initial presidential election last November which was later canceled on suspicion of Russian meddling.
With Georgescu barred from running again, Simion took over the mantle, stoking voter anger over high living costs and perceived social immorality he blamed on mainstream centre-left and centre-right politicians and Western elites.
Simion owed his May 4 first-round win to his support for Georgescu. But analysts said his insistence that he would appoint Georgescu as prime minister was another factor which motivated pro-EU voters to turn up in large numbers.
On Sunday, Dan supporters chanted “Russia don’t forget, Romania isn’t yours,” which became a mantra at pro-EU rallies this year.
“We think it’s important for Romania to continue our European journey, and make sure that we invest everything that we can in things that are important for our country, like education, health, infrastructure,” Alex Moraru, who works in the finance industry, said near Dan’s campaign headquarters on Sunday.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Elizaveta Gladun; Editing by Paul Simao)
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