SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Historically, the eastern corners of Europe are not where we expect democracy to be staunchly defended. But this weekend, there was a dramatic finale to a chaotic six months of Romanian politics, with a centre-left candidate winning the two-round election battle.
Last November, the highest court in Romania annulled the results of the first round of voting in the 2024 presidential election after allegations came to light of Russian interference to support a pro-Moscow candidate. When the first round of voting was run again earlier this month, another right-wing provocateur, George Simion, took the lead, and many believed Romania was reflecting gains by far-right parties in Germany and Italy and headed further to the right.
Nicusor Dan won the Romanian presidential election.Credit: Getty Images
And yet, in this past weekend’s final round, Romanians chose Nicusor Dan, the centre-left mayor of Bucharest, who has made a name for himself battling corruption in the capital city.
Compared with Simion, who modelled himself after Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban and called himself a “natural ally” of Donald Trump (he attended Trump’s inauguration alongside Orban), Dan became the rallying point for a Romania that looks west to democratic allies across Europe.
Where Simion echoed other right-wing autocrats, targeting minority groups under the banner of upholding “family values”, Dan attracted votes from the young and from Romanians living abroad who saw the choice in stark contrast. After Simion’s initial results, voters coalesced around Dan, either shifting from other pro-democracy candidates or jumping in after sitting out the first round.
Across Europe, far-right parties are on the rise – Germany’s AfD garnered 20.8 per cent of the vote in the February election, while similar anti-immigrant, anti-EU parties continue to make gains in the UK, Italy, and the Netherlands. It is worth noting that Simion garnered huge support among Romanian voters living in all of those countries in the first round, but fell behind in the US, where Romanians could see firsthand what a turn back towards a corrupt autocracy looks like.
Instead, Romanian voters rejected a rightward march, aligning with countries like Australia and Canada in bolstering democracy in the face of threats inside and out of the West.
Romanians have spent decades losing out, suffering the hangover of corruption and economic decline since the fall of communism in 1989. Like many former communist regimes, Romania’s dictatorship maintained economic stability by suppressing minorities and denying basic rights, which sent millions of Romanians abroad to find work. About 20 per cent of those who remain live in poverty. Against this backdrop and the cost of living crisis being felt across the western world, Romanians were looking for an alternative.
And since the aborted November election, they have spent six months watching the chaos of the Trump-led Western world, as he and other far-right leaders attack the EU, NATO, and Ukraine, while destabilising the global economy – the kind of market manipulation to benefit the powerful and wealthy that Romanians are all too familiar with. Simion idealised the communist dictators of the past, a history that young voters particularly wanted to move away from, and by nearly 10 percentage points, Romanians rejected the candidate who echoed those themes, instead choosing someone who ran on stamping out corruption.
Another key issue on voters’ minds was that Romania is a key logistics base for European support into Ukraine. Where Dan vocally supported the neighbouring country and the battle against Russia’s creeping authoritarianism, Simion wanted to remove Romania from the fight, with advancements by Russia the obvious consequence.
Though this election wasn’t strictly about Trump, it does tell a broader story about his return to power, and the long-term ramifications his retreat from liberal democracy is having on global alliances.
Across Europe, elections like Romania’s are strengthening democratic alliances that are openly frightened by the way that Trump continues to cosy up to authoritarian rulers. This week, we saw the Trump administration admit to defying court orders, make moves to accept a $US400 million ($621 million) 747 from the Qataris, and float the idea of a reality television show where immigrants compete for American citizenship.
Trump was not on the ballot in Romania, Canada or Australia. And yet, globally, people are voting as if he is, rejecting the culture wars his brand of politics seeks to champion and instead voting for candidates promising to honour existing alliances, and forge new ones, with other democracies.
Romania’s vote was not just a rejection of one man’s extremism. With Simion winning an estimated 45.8 per cent of the vote, it cannot be seen as one. Instead, it is a reminder of how thin the line between autocracy and democracy is, and how many are still willing to cross it.
Cory Alpert is a PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne looking at the impact of AI on democracy. He previously served in the Biden-Harris administration.
