On May 21, 2025, the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) held a roundtable discussion titled, “The Role of the Head of State and Political Alternation in Romania – An Assessment of the Presidential Election.” The panelists included István Székely, Executive Vice President for Social Organization of the RMDSZ Executive Committee and Mátyás Szilágyi, Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. The discussion was moderated by HIIA Senior Research Fellow Péter Pál Kránitz.
The experts pointed out that after the first round of the repeated Romanian elections, it became clear to the traditional political parties that the usual tactics used to get votes weren’t working this time around. George Simion came in first place with more than 40% of the vote, which was a clear signal of the mindset of Romanian voters. For a short time, it seemed that the USR might fall apart as a result, but in the end, the party abandoned its previous candidate, Elena Lasconi, and at the last minute joined forces with Nicusor Dan, who was a more likely winner against Simion.
Simion ultimately lost the second round of the presidential election and is now attacking the election results with similar arguments to those that were previously used against Calin Georgescu following the previous election. Romanian politics has not yet been able to find a meaningful narrative to address the growing segment of the population known as the “blue-collar workers,” who tend to side with Simion against the traditional and discredited elite. While approximately 74% of Dan’s supporters have a university degree, around 68% of Simion’s voter base do not even have a secondary school education. The Romanian diaspora in Western Europe, notably, consists mainly of the working class who were forced to leave the country to secure a livelihood.
István Székely explained that, in his opinion, there will be no early parliamentary elections because they would primarily benefit the AUR party, which supports George Simion. According to rumors, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) will not act as a force in the formation of a new government, despite being one of the most influential parties on the political scene. The new government in must strive to maintain its relations with the United States in line with European policy, while supporting the Republic of Moldova in its European integration. There is still an extremely strong pro-European stance in Romania, despite the fact that the European Union has lost popularity since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war.