Political chaos turns spotlight on Romania’s MAGA champion

LONDON — In Italy and France, nationalist leaders like Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen have toned down their euroskeptic language in recent years in the pursuit of power. In Romania, the sixth most populous country in the EU, the Trump-aligned nationalist George Simion is showing no such restraint. “What they want to do in Brussels is to destroy Europe,” Simion, 39, said in an interview during a visit to London for the CPAC GB conference of activists on the right. “All the measures taken in the last 15-20 years destroyed the economy in Europe. We are going on the wrong path.” The views of Simion, a former football hooligan who relishes a fight with the establishment, matter: His party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), has a huge lead in opinion polls and may soon get a chance to put its case to voters if a snap election is called. He savaged the EU’s green deal, economic and defense policies, and said Romania did not want to return to a time when larger states dominated it. “We have been occupied by these kind of dictators like we have in Russia and we had in U.S.S.R., and dictatorial tendencies from Germany,” he said. “We want to be part of Europe formed of free, sovereign nations.” Romania has been locked in crisis without a fully functioning government since May, when AUR joined forces with the social democrats to bring down the country’s liberal-led ruling coalition. Heir to Orbán On the EU’s eastern flank, bordering Ukraine, Romania plays a critical role in Europe’s security, providing logistical support for the war and housing a major NATO base and a U.S. missile defense shield site. Simion, who has described himself as “Eurorealist, not Euroskeptic,” has long been a contender for power. If he ever wins, he would potentially be a more disruptive figure for European mainstream politics than Hungary’s former premier Viktor Orbán. Last year in his campaign for the presidency, he consciously copied U.S. President Donald Trump and has proposed halting aid to Ukraine, triggering alarm among centrist politicians in Brussels. Simion said in the interview that the constitutional solution to Romanian parties’ failure to agree a new coalition was to hold a snap general election, something that has never happened in the country of 19 million people since the fall of communism in 1989. “If the so-called pro-European elites don’t have a solution, the only solution, the constitutional solution, is snap elections,” Simion said. “We never had snap elections in 35 years of so-called democracy.” The question of democratic integrity in Romania is highly charged. Voters have long been cynical about how the country is run, complaining that the same elites have held power for decades, failing to improve ordinary citizens’ lives and sometimes getting caught in corruption scandals. ‘Democracy was canceled’ Then in December 2024, the constitutional court intervened to cancel presidential elections amid claims that a vast foreign influence operation helped propel far-right ultranationalist Călin Georgescu from obscurity to lead the contest in the first of two rounds of voting. Simion blames Nicușor Dan, his arch-rival, for the political crisis that has engulfed Romania. | Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images Georgescu, whose status as an anti-establishment folk hero was only enhanced by the nullified vote, remains a popular figure in many parts of Romania. He is now on trial in Bucharest on coup charges. “I want to see democracy in Romania,” Simion said. “Democracy was canceled since December 2024. And of course we need to get there as soon as possible. Let the people vote … It’s not bad, despite what some tendencies I see here in Great Britain and other parts, it’s not bad to trust the citizens. The citizens are always right.” Simion stood for the presidency in a re-run election last year and promised to make Georgescu his prime minister if he won. Although he led in the first round, Simion narrowly lost in