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A crucial vote for Romania’s future. Nearly 18 million Romanians are expected to go to the polls on Sunday, May 18, to elect the country’s next president. The entire world is watching the second round of the 2025 presidential elections, in which the general mayor of the capital, Nicușor Dan, and the leader of AUR, George Simion, are facing off. Experts say that voter turnout will be the “decisive factor” that will determine the winner of this election. In the country, polling stations opened at 07:00, with voting set to end at 21:00. Meanwhile, Romanians in the diaspora have already been voting for two days.
To reach 11.5 million voters (compared to the total of 9,571,000 in the first round) more than a 10% increase is needed in Romania.
The turnout stood at 64.58% at 8:50 p.m.
The turnout stood at 63.86% at 8 p.m. According to the data displayed by AEP, 11,278,291 Romanians voted. In the country, 9,680,618 Romanians voted, of which 5,516,412 in urban areas and 4,164,206 in rural areas. In Bucharest, the threshold of 1 million voters (56%) was exceeded.
The turnout was approaching 60% at 7 p.m., – 59.24%.
The turnout at 6 p.m. was 57%. Overall, at 6:00 PM, there were 9.99 million votes, at home and abroad. So far, the increase is over 22% in Romania and 72% in the diaspora.
The turnout at 4 p.m. was 48.48%. 7.16 million votes were cast nationwide, 1.45 million more than at the same time in the first round. In the diaspora, there are 1.3 million votes. In total, at 4 p.m., there are 8.45 million votes, in the country and abroad.
So far, the growth is over 25% in Romania and over 74% in the diaspora. Bucharest, Cluj, Timișoara, Ilfov and other urbanized areas have a higher than average growth rate on Sunday.
The voting turnout (country plus diaspora) was 13.05% at 10:00hrs, compared to 10.14% on May 4. Sociologist Remus Ștefureac, from Inscop Research, anticipates a historical milestone.
The independent candidate Nicușor Dan voted in his hometown. He was greeted with applause upon entering the polling station Nicușor Dan voted at the Gymnasium School No. 4 in Făgăraș, his hometown, where he was greeted by several locals. When he entered the schoolyard, he was applauded by the people. Nicușor Dan came to vote with his partner, Mirabela Grădinaru.
“I came to the school where I studied. With the thought of many people who are quiet, honest and hardworking and who have not felt represented for a long time. I voted for a change that will bring prosperity and not adventure. I voted for a European direction and a good relationship with our partners and not an isolated one. I voted with hope because Romania has the people to build the Romania we want and I chose to vote here in Făgăraș, one to convey to people that it is important to know where we came from and two that there should not be two Romanias, of big cities and small towns, but one Romania where you can prosper”, declared Nicușor Dan.
“All the time (ed. I have emotions) and especially for today because Romania is choosing its future not for 5 years, for more from now on. It is a turning point. These are very important elections and that is why I want to invite all Romanians to go out and vote”, he also said.
AUR candidate George Simion voted on Sunday morning at a school in Mogoșoaia, Ilfov, alongside Călin Georgescu, just as he did in the first round of the elections, accompanied by their wives.
After voting, Călin Georgescu told journalists present at the polling station: “What is happening today is not a vote, it is a confession. It is more than a vote“, said Georgescu.
He was interrupted by a police officer who drew their attention to the fact that they could not make statements in the polling station. “It is not very nice what you did, but there is no problem”, said Simion, and the two left the polling station.
Later, in the lobby of the polling station, Călin Georgescu said that he voted “for the Romanian family, for which the words mother and father are sacred, I voted for our country which more than ever needs love, healing”.
“We voted for our country, here and everywhere, which needs love, forgiveness and healing more than ever. Finally, I would like us to remember the wise words of our ancestors, the more we are, the better. So that we can be many at the polls and we will be strong”, added Călin Georgescu.
George Simion declared that he voted for the future of the country to be decided by the Romanians. “We voted against the injustices done to the Romanian people, we voted against the inequities and humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected, both here within the current borders and everywhere, we voted against abuse and poverty, against those who disregard us all. We voted for our future to be decided only by Romanians, for Romanians and for Romania. May God help us in this way”, said George Simion.
Interim President Ilie Bolojan voted on Sunday at 8:25 a.m. at the 150th High School in the capital. Upon leaving the polling station, he urged Romanians to go vote, because “today more than ever the destiny of our country is in their hands.”
“Dear Romanians, I voted today, aware of the importance of this vote, because the decision that the citizens of our country will make today will not only influence our development model in the next five years, but will also have effects on the lives of our children and grandchildren. The President who will be elected will not be able to do everything, but he will be able to do a lot for a country that you can rely on, to overcome economic difficulties, but especially to restore trust and hope. Starting next week, the President-elect can do these things with honesty, common sense and responsibility for our country. Use this right that we have earned, the right to vote, because today, more than ever, the destiny of our country is in your hands,” said Ilie Bolojan, who concluded his statement with the exhortation “Vote as your conscience dictates.”
Former president Traian Băsescu went to vote with his wife, Maria.He said that it is a decisive one, in which Romanians decide whether the fact that we joined NATO and the EU was a good decision or not, depending on the direction Romania will take following the result of today’s election.
“A policy of Moscow that constantly, through image vectors or analysts, has blamed the last 20 years. I will say that they are not good. I mean, these are the exact years when we were in NATO and the EU. Probably today the people will decide whether it was good or not. If the option is pro-Moscow, one candidate will be voted for, if the option is pro-Atlantic, another candidate will be voted for. It is a decisive day”, said Traian Băsescu.
The Guardian: Romanians are voting in a decisive presidential election that could radically change the country’s strategic direction
“Romanians are voting in a decisive presidential election that could radically change the country’s strategic direction and economic prospects, while voters in Poland and Portugal are also heading to the polls in a European Super Sunday,” The Guardian, one of Europe’s most popular newspapers, reported on Sunday morning.
Describing the Romanian vote as “the most important of the three,” The Guardian notes that it “pits a bold populist, EU critic and Trump admirer, against a centrist independent in a close race that analysts say is the most important in the country’s post-communist history.”
The Guardian informs its readers that George Simion, whom it describes as a “former football ultra and ultranationalist agitator who sees his far-right party, AUR, as a ‘natural ally’ of the US-based Maga movement”, comfortably won the first round of voting on 4 May, with 41%, ‘double that of Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan’.
Recent polls have shown that the gap between the two candidates has narrowed, with one putting them almost level and another giving a lead to Dan – who described the vote as a showdown between “a pro-Western and an anti-Western Romania”, The Guardian also writes.
In Poland, 13 candidates are vying for the position of head of state in the first round of the presidential election, and the centrist mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, a senior member of the Civic Coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is the favorite.
Polls predict that Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki, a historically independent politician but supported by the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, will advance to the second round, scheduled for June 1.
“A victory for the centrist would strengthen Tusk’s ability to advance his reformist agenda, blocked by the Polish president’s power to reject legislation passed by parliament. The incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, is an ally of PiS,” notes The Guardian.
Portugal, meanwhile, is heading for its third snap election in three years after center-right Prime Minister Luís Montenegro triggered and lost a no-confidence vote in parliament over questions about his family’s business dealings. His Democratic Alliance (AD) party is expected to come in first but fall short of a majority and could struggle to form a government, especially if the Socialist Party (PS), which is likely to finish second, keeps its promise to oppose his legislative agenda. Montenegro has vowed not to work with the far-right Chega party, whose leader, former TV sports commentator André Ventura, was hospitalized Friday after collapsing twice during rallies, but could be replaced at the helm by someone more compatible with Chega.
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