Romanian presidential candidate Nicusor Dan greets supporters Sunday after exit poll results showed him with a lead over opponent George Simion. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images)
BUCHAREST, Romania — The centrist pro-European mayor of Bucharest led exit polls Sunday in a presidential election that analysts have said is Romania’s most consequential since the fall of communism.
Nicusor Dan, a former mathematician running as an independent, captured about 55 percent of the vote, according to exit polls issued by public broadcasters here. George Simion, a right-wing Euroskeptic who suggested he would cut aid to Ukraine, took about 45 percent.
Romania in December annulled the results of the first round of the country’s presidential election after declassified intelligence documents by then-Romanian President Klaus Iohannis alleged that Russia orchestrated a campaign to promote far-right candidate Călin Georgescu on platforms such as TikTokand Telegram. Iohannis, meanwhile, resigned in February.
As a result, Georgescu has been banned from partaking in the subsequent election. Both Georgescu and Moscow have denied any collusion.
About Dan
He is a civic activist who has served as the General Mayor of Bucharest since 2020 . Born in Făgăraș, Brașov County, he earned international acclaim in his youth as a mathematician, securing gold medals at the 1987 and 1988 International Mathematical Olympiads, and obtained a PhD from the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1998.
After returning to Romania, Dan founded Școala Normală Superioară București, an institution aimed at guiding the most talented Romanian students towards scientific research, and became a civic activist. In 2015, he launched the Save Bucharest Union, championing anti-corruption and heritage preservation, which propelled him into politics. One year later, he co-founded the Save Romania Union(USR), but resigned from the party in 2017. Dan served in the Chamber of Deputies from 2016, before being elected Bucharest’s first independent mayor in 2020 and winning re-election in 2024. He is focused on public infrastructure and transparency, despite criticism over construction delays.
Washington. Post