Romania election: Pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan wins runoff
www.dw.com

... What you need to know

- - - Romanians voted in the second round of the presidential election

- - - The runoff pitted hard-right candidate George Simion against centrist Nicusor Dan

- - - Dan has been confirmed as the winner after a tense vote count

- - - Despite the results, Simion has claimed victory

- - - A top court annulled last year's presidential vote following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference

- - - Romanian officials said Sunday's vote bore the "hallmarks of Russian interference," amid claims from Telegram's founder that France had interfered in the polls ...

And then an update ...

...Simion concedes defeat, congratulates Dan

Hard-right candidate George Simion has conceded defeat to his pro-EU rival Nicusor Dan.

"I would like to congratulate my opponent, Nicusor Dan," Simion said in a video published on Facebook.

"He won the election and that was the will of the Romanian people."

He promised to "continue our fight" for Romania and to put its 19 million people "first".

Simion had previously contested exit polls that showed that Dan had won the election, claiming that he had secured 400,000 more votes than his centrist rival. ...

The 'Trump Effect' on Elections Is Just Beginning, Including in Japan (April 2025)
www.cfr.org

... Donald Trump has only been president of the United States, this time around, for about three months. It has been a dramatic three months since his inauguration"so dramatic that some interesting aspects of the mercurial U.S. leader's impact on the world get less notice. They are often lost among the ways in which he has shocked the global order, global markets, alliances and the U.S. economy itself.

Yet since that inauguration, the president also seems to be creating a "Trump effect" on many, though not all, foreign elections, especially among countries that have been important U.S. allies and partners. In general, the effect has been to boost the popularity of left or center-left parties in national elections. Yet sometimes it is not just leftist parties that win, but rather a leader who stands up to Trump the most or seems to the public like the best-equipped figure to handle the White House.

This is an effect that started recently in Greenland, a Danish-controlled self-governing protectorate. Since his inauguration, Trump has repeatedly and publicly mused about annexing Greenland, sometimes suggesting the U.S. should do so by force.

The impact? In Greenland's March elections, a centrist party that wants gradual independence from Denmark, which many voters seemed to believe puts Greenland in the best position to ward off Trump, won national elections. The party's leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has repeatedly and publicly blasted the U.S. president, calling him "a threat to our political independence." ...