Presidential elections were held in Romania on 4 May 2025, with a second round on 18 May 2025. Nicușor Dan and George Simion were the two candidates who advanced to the second round. Dan's term as the sixth president of Romania began on 26 May.
The election was scheduled in January 2025 following the annulment of the 2024 presidential election citing alleged Russian meddling in favour of first-round winner Călin Georgescu. The campaign was characterised by political instability and a series of protests against the annulment. On 7 March, Georgescu was barred from running, pending several criminal investigations, with the leader of the AUR party Simion announcing his candidacy in Georgescu's place.
Simion, who won 40.96% of the vote in the first round, faced Dan, who garnered 20.99% of the vote, in the second round that was held on 18 May 2025.[1] Dan won with 53.6% against Simion's 46.4%.
On 20 May, having previously conceded the election and congratulated Dan on his victory,[2] Simion stated that he had formally filed a contest of the results with the Romanian Constitutional Court, alleging mass voter fraud.[3][4][5] Simion's request for the annulment of the election was rejected by the Court two days later, and Dan's presidency began on 26 May.[6][7]
Background
Previous election annulled
On 6 December 2024, the 2024 presidential election, was annulled by the Constitutional Court of Romania, 48 hours before the second round was to be held, citing alleged Russian intervention on behalf of independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, who took a shock lead in the first round with 23%.[8]CSAT said the campaign was "identical" to the online campaign launched by Russia before its invasion of Ukraine. On 20 December, an investigation was published showing that PNL had seemingly paid for one of the TikTok campaigns.[9] PNL interim president Ilie Bolojan had stated however that the campaign was altered illegally to favor Georgescu, yet had not blamed the company they worked with for the alteration.[10]
President Iohannis' resignation and political crisis
Following the annulment of the 2024 presidential election in December, Iohannis was allowed to stay on as president by the Constitutional Court until his successor could be sworn in. However, on 10 February, following an attempt by members of parliament to impeach him, Iohannis announced that he would resign on 12 February.[14] Senate president Ilie Bolojan assumed the role of acting president until the elections.[15]
Georgescu barring and Simion candidacy
Georgescu arriving with Simion to the Central Electoral Bureau to file his candidacy on 7 March. It was rejected two days later
On 26 February 2025, Georgescu was stopped by police in traffic, while allegedly on his way to register for the election. He was charged with six offenses, including incitement to actions against the constitutional order, and support of fascist groups.[16] Preemptive measures have been imposed, including judiciary control, and a 60-day ban on posting xenophobic and antisemitic materials to social networks (although such actions are already illegal in Romania).[17][18] The police claimed to have found ten million U.S. dollars buried inside his bodyguard's house along with plane tickets to Moscow.[17][19] On 7 March, Georgescu filed his candidacy to the Central Electoral Bureau, being rejected two days later which led to new protests.[20] Consequently, George Simion arrived to the Central Electoral Bureau on 14 March accompanied by former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki to file his candidacy after collecting 604,000 signatures, above the minimum requirement of 200,000.[21] The CEB approved his candidacy on the following day,[22] which was also the deadline for candidates to register, with Simion stating "We passed the BEC, now let's see if we pass the CCR and return to democracy".[23] The CCR validated his candidacy one day later as well as the ones of Nicușor Dan and Victor Ponta.[24]
Election date
Voting locations in Belgium, announcement on Tour & Taxis
The date of the first round had initially been publicly speculated by news media as 23 March 2025, with the runoff two weeks later (6 April 2025). In early January, these dates became obsolete, as the law for electing the president of Romania requires a minimum of 75 days between the election day and the day the election is called. On 8 January, the coalition fixed the dates of the election. The first round was scheduled to be held on 4 May 2025 with the second round two weeks later (18 May 2025).[25][26]
Date
Event
8 January
The government fixed the date for the election (first round on 4 May 2025)
Deadline for registration of electoral alliances at BEC
15 March
Deadline for candidates to register, 23:59:59 (at BEC)
17 March
Deadline for BEC to validate or reject candidates registered on 15 March (48 hours after registering)[27]
19 March
Deadline to file complaints at CCR against BEC decision (of validation or rejection of a candidacy) (24 hours after BEC ruling)
20 March
Definitive candidacies announced
22 March
BEC determines the order of the candidates on the ballot paper (lottery)
4 April
The start of the electoral campaign (at 7:00)
2 May
The end of the electoral campaign (at 22:00) Voting at polling stations abroad begins at 7:00a.m. local time
4 May
Voting in Romania begins at 7:00a.m.
Candidates
The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) was constituted on 21 February 2025.[28] The deadline for registering electoral alliances at the BEC was on 23 February 2025. By that deadline, only one electoral alliance was registered, between the governing PSD, PNL, and UDMR, called the Romania Forward Electoral Alliance (Alianța Electorală România Înainte; A.Ro for short).[29]
Persons who wished to run for the office could begin gathering the support signatures (a minimum of 200,000) after 23 February. The deadline for registering the candidacy at the BEC was 15 March 2025, at 23:59:59. All candidatures validated by the BEC had to pass the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court of Romania. On 19 March, Gavrilă withdrew her candidacy for president, endorsing Simion.[30] A final list of all 11 candidates was released on the following day.[31] On 22 March, a random draw took place, placing Simion on the first position on the ballot and Nicușor Dan on the last.[32][33]
Announced intention to run: 16 December 2024[36] DREPT announces support: 18 December 2024[37] PMP, and FD announce support: 2 February 2025[38] REPER announces support: 1 March 2025[39] USR announces support: 9 April 2025[40] BEC registration: 7 March 2025[41] BEC validation: 9 March 2025[42] BEC validation upheld by Constitutional Court: 11 March 2025
Announced as common PSD, PNL, and UDMR candidate: 24 December 2024[44] Announced self-suspension of campaign: 4 January 2025[45] Validated as PNL candidate: 26 January 2025[46] Validated as UDMR candidate: 29 January 2025[47] Validated as PSD candidate: 2 February 2025[48] BEC registration: 9 March 2025[49] BEC validation: 11 March 2025[50] BEC validation upheld by Constitutional Court: 11 March 2025
Announced as still being the USR candidate: 10 January 2025[51] BEC registration: 13 March 2025[52] BEC validation: 15 March 2025[53]USR withdraws support: 9 April 2025[54]
Expressed interest: 19 January 2025[64][65] Announced the collecting of supporting signatures: 5 February 2025[66] Announced intention to run: 19 February 2025[67] Launched campaign/program: 6 March 2025[68] BEC registration:12 March 2025[69] BEC validation: 14 March 2025
BEC registration:14 March 2025[34] BEC validation: 15 March 2025[35] Withdrawn: 19 March 2025[79]
Rejected candidates
The following is a list of people that have filed a candidacy at the Central Electoral Bureau and were rejected for not complying the legal requirements to be allowed to run.
Name
Campaign slogan
Public office experience
Party and endorsements
Candidacy related dates
Petru Mîndru
No campaign information
No previous public office
Affiliation: none
BEC registration:6 March 2025[80] BEC rejection:6 March 2025[81] Second BEC registration:13 March 2025 Second BEC rejection:15 March 2025[82] Third BEC registration:15 March 2025 Third BEC rejection:17 March 2025[83]
Maria Marcu
No campaign information
No previous public office
Affiliation: none
BEC registration:7 March 2025 BEC rejection:9 March 2025[84] Second BEC registration:9 March 2025 Second BEC rejection:11 March 2025[85] Third BEC registration:14 March 2025 Third BEC rejection:15 March 2025[86] Fourth BEC registration:15 March 2025 Fourth BEC rejection:17 March 2025[87]
Ion Popa
No campaign information
No previous public office
Affiliation: none
BEC registration:7 March 2025 BEC rejection: 9 March 2025[88]
Executive director of the UN Global Sustainable Index Institute Foundation in Geneva (2015–2016) Executive director of the National Center of Sustainable Development (1997–2013) Secretary of State with the Ministry of Environment (c. 2010)
The following is a table of participating candidates in each debate:
Participating candidates
Candidate
P Present (on spot or through a video/audio live call) N Not invited/Invitation declined A Absent (Invitation accepted, but failed to show up or downgraded their presence to a representative)
Furthermore, in a poll among Moldovans with Romanian citizenship, 15.4% stated they would vote for Dan, 11.5% for Lasconi, 7.2% for Antonescu, 3.8% for Simion, 1.8% for Ponta and 0.8% for other candidates. 37.6% stated they were undecided, 18% that they would not vote and 3.9% did not answer. The poll was conducted by iData in April, with a sample of 1,027. According to iData, 500,000–550,000 Romanian citizens with the right to vote in the election lived in Moldova at the time.[128]
OSCE observers verifying ballot box seal at a Bucharest polling station
As per Romanian law, citizens could vote at the designated polling station inside the municipality, town or commune where they reside or at any other station outside of said jurisdiction, on a supplementary list.[297] The counting process was recorded.[298]
Fifty-three Romanian politically non-affiliated organisations were accredited by the Permanent Electoral Authority to observe the election process.[299] The AEP additionally approved access for 87 foreign journalists from outlets such as Sky News, Associated Press, Reuters, France 24 and the BBC as well as 159 representatives of the following organisations:[300]
International observers to the 2025 Romanian presidential election
Results were updated in real time on the Permanent Electoral Authority website with information from the 19,943 polling stations.[302] There were no major incidents reported by observers during voting hours or the counting process.[303][304] Statements of preliminary conclusions from the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE mention that "[t]he voting process was evaluated positively, with observers finding the process to be conducted in an efficient, transparent, and professional manner", while also noting the presence of online disinformation and media bias during the campaign.[305]FEC member Trey Trainor praised the election process he observed, stating that: "Every vote was cast using a paper ballot, and the entire ballot-counting process was not only done in the presence of poll watchers from every political party but also recorded on video to guarantee transparency. There were no delays in reporting results. In fact, the entire country completed its electoral count within hours of polls closing — a testament to both the simplicity and the integrity of the process."[306]
Following the results, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced that PSD would leave A.Ro, and he resigned from the position of prime minister, which resulted in the collapse of the coalition. However, he continued to serve as the PSD leader.[311]
Lasconi got significantly fewer votes than in the 2024 elections, scoring only 2.68% of the vote.[312] Subsequently, the next day after the elections, she announced she would step down as president of the Save Romania Union.[313]
Simion's victory in the first round also had significant economic implications, with the Bucharest Stock Exchange experiencing substantial losses[314] and the National Bank of Romania investing over 2 billion euros in stabilising the leu and preventing depreciation.[315] Former Romanian president Traian Băsescu criticised the Romanian diaspora for Simion's victory among its voters. He called the attitude of the majority of the diaspora "dishonest", stating that: "They live in the West and say: come on, you who live at home, come on, go to daddy Putin, go to Putin!".[316] During the campaign, AUR appointed lawyer Silvia Uscov head of its legal team to help in possibly challenging the election results.[317][318]
After Simion's first-round victory, Moldovan analyst Ion Tăbîrță predicted that, if Simion were to prevail in the second round, Moldova-Romania relations would suffer. Tăbîrță claimed that, were Simion to win, Moldova could lose Romania's support in international relations, including in its path toward European integration. He added that Romania would lose its role as Moldova's "defender" in the eyes of the European Union, as it would no longer have the same image within the bloc. According to another Moldovan analyst, Mihaela Sirețanu, relations between the two countries would become tense: Simion is banned from entering Moldova until 2028. Both Tăbîrță and Sirețanu agreed that Dan's victory would be more favourable for Moldova and its relationship with Romania.[319]
BBC's Central Europe Correspondent Nick Thorpe reported that many voters who backed Georgescu in the annulled election switched their allegiance to Simion, and that the two voted together. He predicted that, in the second round, Simion would also attract voters who backed fourth-placed former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, a retired Social Democrat who adopted a "Romania First" campaign.[320]
Second round
Results of the presidential electionFirst place diaspora votes in Europe by country:
Nicușor Dan
George Simion
On the day of the second round, Andrei Țărnea, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, denounced Russian interference during the election. He stated that a viral fake news campaign on Telegram and other social media was seeking to influence the electoral process, something which was expected as he stated, with the Romanian authorities having proved these news false according to him. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated this situation was alarming because "it appears to have been created with the aim of undermining citizens' confidence in democratic institutions and processes". Furthermore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Romania stated that a clip had been distributed on TikTok claiming that French troops in Romania, stationed at NATO's Cincu Training Center, were secretly wearing Romanian Gendarmerie uniforms to intervene on Romania's internal affairs, which the ministry stated was false and "pure disinformation".[321]
With a final voter turnout of 64.72% (which translates to 11,641,544 votes),[322] the run-off winner was certified on 18 May by the Central Electoral Bureau to be Dan, with 6,168,642 votes.[323]
Simion had prematurely declared victory on Facebook with a post reading: "I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!"[324] He later conceded the election, stating "I would like to congratulate my opponent, Nicușor Dan. He won the election, it was the will of the Romanian people".[325][326] Two days later, Simion demanded the annulment of the election, citing "external influence by state and non-state actors" as grounds for annulment, drawing parallels to the court's previous annulment of the December 2024 election over alleged Russian interference, referring to the election as a "farce".[327]
Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed meanwhile on May 18 that he had been pressured in France in the spring of 2025 to have Telegram remove certain "conservative" messages during the May 2025 presidential election.[328][329] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France formally denied this in a statement.[309] Following this denial, Durov specifically accused Nicolas Lerner, Director General of External Security (DGSE), of having asked him to carry out this censorship.[330] He didn't provide any proof for either of these accusations.[331]
The AUR party also claimed, in a statement published on May 26, 2025, that Nicolas Lerner had "discreetly" traveled to Romania before the second round of elections.[332] These fake news[333] were denied by the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, calling them "attempts at manipulation and disinformation",[326] and by French DGSE.[329] On May 22, the Constitutional Court rejected Simion's request and upheld the initial results, thus validating Dan's election.[334] Dan was sworn in on 26 May in front of the Romanian Parliament.[335]
On 21 May, seven out of the 21 deputies and five out of the seven senators of the right-wing populist Party of Young People left the party, bringing the parliamentary group in the Senate below the minimum threshold of members and causing its dissolution.[336][337]
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the election results "strange, to say the least", and said Dan had won "in the absence of the favorite", referring to Georgescu.[340] The French intelligence agency DGSE denied claims by George Simion and Telegram founder Pavel Durov that it had interfered with the election.[341]
Analysis
Analysts attributed Dan's unexpected[342][343] victory in the second round to higher voter turnout.[344]Urban voters, women, and ethnic minorities voted for Dan over Simion by large margins.[343] Dan did particularly well among Romania's large population of ethnic Hungarians, who were wary of Simion's nationalist rhetoric despite Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's apparent endorsement of Simion in the second round. Orbán's endorsement was poorly received in both Hungary and the diaspora.[345]The New York Times columnist Andrew Higgins also opined that Dan's victory indicated that voters "wanted a middle path between bitterly polarized political camps,"[346] while the Atlantic Council argued that Dan benefited from not being associated with the ruling government, and that "Romanians have voted for Europe and democracy, not nationalism, but they also seem to want change."[347] Political analyst and AUR senate leader Petrișor Peiu attributed the result to Dan's strong mobilisation efforts as well as "less inspired" decisions by AUR.[348]
1 2 3 The party withdrew its support in favour of Dan, but Lasconi remained on the ballot as a USR candidate
↑ In order for a debate to be counted as such, there must be at least two candidates present. The following situations are not considered proper debates: one candidate with one or multiple interviewers; one candidate with a representative (or more) of other candidate(s); only representatives of candidates (no matter how many candidates were represented); one candidate debating a previously recorded video of other candidate(s); short live statements of a candidate (via telephone or video streaming) inserted during a show with only one (other) candidate; short coincidental encounters of candidates (in a non-previously organised debate) that spoke to each other (and were recorded, even on professional cameras in TV studios). Any debate must be publicly broadcast. Negotiations behind closed doors, "strategic meetings" among candidates or any other type of discreet talks are not proper debates, even if their content (or bits of it) was released to the public, with/without the candidates' approval of its release.
Debates may be broadcast on radio, television, or the internet. Candidates may show up in person or participate in the debate via telephone or video streaming for the entire debate time. Candidates who left the debate before 10% of the debate time elapsed (after a few words or several minutes) are considered absentees and their leaving is noted as such. In this particular situation (if it will occur), the debate is considered a valid one, because at least two candidates were present at its beginning. Candidates who left before the debate's ending are considered present, with their particular situation noted as such. Re-runs or syndication are not counted as different debates.
↑ Simion showed up to the debate but walked off stage, after giving a bouquet of flowers to Elena Lasconi, to protest the annulment of the 2024 presidential election[127]
1 2 On 9 May 2025, Orbán quoted and commented on Simion in the context of a speech at Tihany Abbey: "'Now comes the time of a Europe of nations, a Christian Europe, within which we will fight for our right to be European citizens.' This was not said in Hungary, but in neighboring Romania. We totally agree. We share a common historical destiny with the Romanians. We are not going to intervene in the ongoing electoral fight for the Romanian presidency, but we do send this message from here, from the center of the Carpathian Basin, from this symbolic place: we can assure Romania's people and future president that we stand on the common ground of solidarity and cooperation and that we therefore will not support any attempt to isolate or enact political vengeance upon Romania and its leaders." The Hungarian press, both in Hungary and in the diaspora, intepreted this as an endorsement of Simion. Orbán denied this was an endoresement and, after speaking with RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen the following day, clarified that he supported whatever endorsement RMDSZ issued. RMDSZ subsequently endorsed Dan, but Orbán did not explicitly do so. After the elections, Orbán expressed that he had been "surprised" by the "storm" his "comments in relation to Simion" had caused in the diaspora. Orbán added that it was "correct" that "Romanian Hungarians not cooperate with the far right—though, of course, neither with the far left. In other words, that they not cooperate with those who are enemies of the Hungarians. As to who are Hungarians' enemies: that is something you all, here in Transylvania, know better than anyone else anywhere else in the world."
↑ "Comunicat de presă"(PDF) (Press release). Biroul Electoral Central. 15 March 2025. Archived from the original(PDF) on 15 March 2025. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
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