International-News

Romania, George Simion defeated: ‘embrace’ maga proves lethal boomerang in vote

After Canada and Australia, Bucharest’s embrace of Trumpism also turns into a failure at the ballot box

In Romania, as in Canada and Australia, the embrace of the Maga brand and Trumpian rhetoric proved to be an electoral boomerang. Despite his triumph in the first round, George Simion, leader of the ultranationalist Aur party, was defeated in the runoff by Nicușor Dan, the pro-European mayor of Bucharest, who had erected a wall against the sovereignist drift.

Simion, 38, had appeared in the second round with the classic red hat of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement and statements strongly inspired by the tycoon: ‘We fight for God against evil’, he had said in an interview with SkyNews, in full continuity with the positions taken in the War Room podcast by Steve Bannon, the guru of the American far-right.

His defeat comes after two other emblematic cases. In Australia, Peter Dutton, a conservative leader close to the Maga style, was beaten by Labour’s Anthony Albanese. Dutton had praised Trump calling him a ‘great thinker’ and had been inspired by Elon Musk’s cuts by threatening a compulsory return to attendance for civil servants, only to withdraw the proposal shortly before the vote.

In Canada, the scenario was even more sensational. Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who was ahead by more than 20 points in January, was defeated in the election by Mark Carney, the new Liberal premier. Weighing on the result was Trump’s growing verbal antagonism towards Ottawa and his never-repeated call for the annexation of Canada as the 51st US state.

In Romania, as elsewhere, identification with the Maga universe seems to have mobilised the moderate electorate, which preferred to defend democratic and European values in the face of the populist and sovereignist offensive.

THE LATEST NEWS