By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Romania’s pro-EU and pro-NATO parties appeared to be holding off the far right in a parliamentary election on Sunday, but the strength of the radical vote suggested that an ultranationalist, pro-Russian candidate could still win the presidency this month.
Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Monday to certify the country’s first round of presidential elections, allowing the December 8 runoff to proceed as scheduled.
However, Călin Georgescu’s success did not lead to a victorious outcome for parties supporting him in Sunday’s separately held parliamentary vote. With most ballots counted, initial results showed Romania’s ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) winning with roughly 22.3 percent of the vote, followed by the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) with about 18.3 percent.
Analysts said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s PSD must form a coalition to govern that could include the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), its current governing partner, and others.
However, the victory of pro-EU and pro-NATO was welcome news for voters such as Durian Burcea, a marketing specialist.
“As a person who lived a little bit under communism and still remembers it, and at the same time could enjoy all this openness of the European Union, to travel, to have the borders open, to be able to go to other countries, I can’t imagine how we could have another option other than being part of the European Union and NATO military alliance,” she said.
LONGING FOR CHANGE
Andreea Damian, a nurse, still hopes others will govern Romania, a nation of 19 million people. “Yes, I would like a change to see what other politicians can do for us. I want this, and I hope things can be better,” she explained.
However, the election outcome was due to be welcomed in Brussels. That’s because Romania, an EU and NATO member state, has a 650-kilometer (400-mile) border with Ukraine and is crucial in Western support for Kyiv.
In addition to providing military aid to its war-torn neighbor, Romania allowed the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta.
There has been Western concern that the pro-Russia candidate, Călin Georgescu, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Observers said his victory in the first presidential election round was partly due to his wildly successful campaign on social platform TikTok, which officials claimed was backed by Russia, charges Moscow denies.
The Constitutional Court ordered a ballot recount for the first round of the presidential election after one of the 13 candidates alleged fraud.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Israel unleashed its most decisive and devastating blow in Lebanon since the 2024 ceasefire on Sunday, eliminating Hezbollah’s powerful military chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, in a precise airstrike deep inside Beirut. The operation — code-named “Black Friday” — struck the third and fourth floors of a building in the Haret Hreik district, the very nerve center of the Iranian-backed terrorist organization.
The Netherlands’ military confirmed Saturday it opened fire on drones over Volkel Air Base in the southeast of the country, where the United States is widely believed to store nuclear weapons, though no wreckage was recovered.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was detained by Brazil’s federal police on Saturday, days before he was set to begin his 27-year prison sentence for “leading a coup attempt,” officials said.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki said Saturday that any peace plan for Ukraine must be decided in Kyiv, after the U.S. signaled it would press President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a deal to end the war with Russia.
Vietnamese authorities said Saturday that the death toll from torrential rain, flooding, and landslides in central Vietnam has risen to 55, with 13 people reported missing.
Air traffic at Eindhoven airport in southern Netherlands was suspended for several hours late Saturday, shortly after the Ministry of Defense acknowledged that the Dutch military shot at similar flying objects over Volkel Air Base in the southeast of the country, where the United States is widely believed to store nuclear weapons.
Authorities say Ukraine struck a major heat and power station in Russia’s Moscow region on Sunday using drones, igniting a large fire and cutting off heating for thousands of residents. The attack — one of Kyiv’s deepest strikes into Russian territory to date — unfolded as the United States was attempting to advance a peace proposal between the two nations.