LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The centrist pro-European mayor of Bucharest was elected president of Romania yesterday, beating a right-wing Eurosceptic. NPR's Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz reports that the contest was seen as a litmus test over whether populist nationalism or Western democracy would prevail.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: With nearly all the ballots counted, preliminary official results show 54% of Romanian voters choosing Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan as their president. His opponent was George Simion, a nationalist and admirer of President Donald Trump. And while he received just 46% of the vote, Simion claimed victory and called for national protests, railing against what he said was an attempt to, quote, "steal the victory of the Romanian people."
CLARA VOLINTIRU: But I think the safety of the large difference made that impossible.
SCHMITZ: Clara Volintiru is regional director of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a public policy think tank.
VOLINTIRU: Even if Nicusor Dan would have won but would have won by a small margin, then social unrest would have followed today.
SCHMITZ: Volintiru says Dan's result of just 20% of the vote in the first round of the election to become today's winner was an amazing comeback by the centrist independent politician. But his victory will likely anger many right-wing politicians abroad, including JD Vance. He criticized a Romanian court's decision last year to annul the first round of this presidential election after state intelligence revealed that Russia interfered in the election, a claim Moscow denies. Volintiru says this second round margin of victory, though, is enough to quiet these critics.
VOLINTIRU: The fact that there was a big difference, a clear win, has really reestablished the faith in the democratic process in Romania, both domestically and abroad.
SCHMITZ: She says it'll also calm fears in Europe that the democratic backsliding seen in parts of Central and Eastern Europe is not happening in Romania, a country that borders Ukraine and plays a key role in defending NATO's eastern flank against Russia.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin.
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