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 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a closed briefing Monday that recent White House rhetoric about Greenland does not signal an imminent U.S. invasion, emphasizing instead that the administration’s preferred goal is to purchase the island from Denmark, according to people familiar with the discussion.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that a federal crime crackdown in the nation’s capital has led to dramatic reductions in violent crime, crediting the effort to President Donald Trump’s public safety initiative.
Israel, Syria and the United States have agreed to establish a new “joint fusion mechanism” aimed at enhancing security coordination, intelligence sharing and military de-escalation, marking the most significant formal cooperation between Jerusalem and Damascus in decades.
The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach by launching a new website aimed at challenging what it says is a Democrat-driven distortion of events and years of politically motivated prosecutions against Americans who participated in protests that day.
Britain and France, both members of the NATO military alliance, have agreed to prepare for the deployment of troops to Ukraine if the war-torn country reaches a peace deal with neighboring Russia.
A federal appeals court has handed a key win to religious liberty advocates, allowing the Union Gospel Mission of Yakima to move forward with its constitutional challenge against Washington state’s hiring restrictions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel and the United States are in full agreement on how to confront Iran, describing his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump as a strategic partnership that will drive continued Israeli security successes in 2026.