Romania's Trump-aligned nationalist George Simion eyes power amid political chaos

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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 the final runoff vote to the centrist mayor of Bucharest Nicușor Dan.

He now blames Dan, his arch-rival, for the political crisis that has engulfed Romania, pointing to local reports that claim the president plotted with the social democrats to bring down liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

“He created a mess,” Simion said. “He wanted to get rid of Bolojan, but their plan was not so successful.”

‘A complicated mind’

Simion caused uproar in last year’s presidential election when he described Dan as a gifted mathematician who speaks softly and never gets riled by his opponents’ attacks as “autistic.” Simion appeared to return to the theme: “I [have known him] since 2006 when we were both civic activists. He has a complicated mind.”

Talks on forming a new government stalled before Romania’s parliament broke up for the summer break at the start of this month. That means there is unlikely to be a resolution before the autumn.

Simion dismissed the idea of working with the social democratic party (PSD), though did not fully rule it out. Instead, he argued that the PSD would not be radical enough at ripping up red tape and reforming markets to allow businesses to flourish.

“They don’t have the same vision as us, and they don’t have popular support,” he said. “They have been running the country for almost 45 years. I would say let the people decide, and we will see how we can get [out of this] hole that we are in. Because, if you don’t stop it, if you don’t get a different paradigm, we will be in Greece’s situation.”

For his part, Dan, the president, and his allies have long believed he must not allow parties like Simion’s to form a new administration, arguing that AUR and its far-right colleagues are anti-Western , anti-European and would be too sympathetic to Moscow if they entered government.

Simion rejects this. “Europe is in London, in Warsaw, in Budapest, in Bucharest, not in Brussels,” he said. “We want to go on the path of a united Europe which creates prosperity, and NATO is the only solution for security and to keep the free world free.”

AUR is at 36 percent in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls , 14 points clear of Bolojan’s National Liberal Party. That’s one reason why Dan and other centrists will not want to go to a snap election and may yet find a way to form a new coalition.

But Dan is under pressure. His first choice for a new PM withdrew before being put to a vote among lawmakers, and his second choice did go to a vote and was rejected. Simion has already launched a bid to suspend the president, and the longer the delay in reaching a solution, the weaker Dan’s position will likely become.

If early elections do come, Simion will be ready with his usual blend of pugnacious populism and self-confidence. “I started this political party six years ago,” he said. “Everybody thinks we are helped by the West, by the East, by Israel, by Russia, but it’s actually God behind us. And a very incompetent political elite.”