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Romania gets new pro-European president

Romania gets new pro-European president

The Advertiser20-05-2025
A pro-European Union centrist has pulled off an upset win in Romania's presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channelled people's anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.
But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.
Final results from Sunday's presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6 per cent of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to US President Donald Trump.
The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.
But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania's presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fuelled a broad rejection of the political establishment.
Dan's decisive win was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion — a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighbouring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine — had nearly double Dan's share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.
Simion's surge to prominence came after Romania's first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country's political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.
While Simion was considered the favourite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7 per cent in the ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Dan.
Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania's large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe.
Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, Dan struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning "a new chapter, and it needs every one of you".
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure — especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe's eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.
A pro-European Union centrist has pulled off an upset win in Romania's presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channelled people's anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.
But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.
Final results from Sunday's presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6 per cent of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to US President Donald Trump.
The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.
But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania's presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fuelled a broad rejection of the political establishment.
Dan's decisive win was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion — a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighbouring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine — had nearly double Dan's share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.
Simion's surge to prominence came after Romania's first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country's political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.
While Simion was considered the favourite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7 per cent in the ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Dan.
Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania's large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe.
Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, Dan struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning "a new chapter, and it needs every one of you".
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure — especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe's eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.
A pro-European Union centrist has pulled off an upset win in Romania's presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channelled people's anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.
But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.
Final results from Sunday's presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6 per cent of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to US President Donald Trump.
The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.
But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania's presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fuelled a broad rejection of the political establishment.
Dan's decisive win was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion — a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighbouring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine — had nearly double Dan's share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.
Simion's surge to prominence came after Romania's first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country's political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.
While Simion was considered the favourite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7 per cent in the ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Dan.
Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania's large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe.
Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, Dan struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning "a new chapter, and it needs every one of you".
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure — especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe's eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.
A pro-European Union centrist has pulled off an upset win in Romania's presidential election, beating out a hard-right nationalist who had channelled people's anger at the political establishment to surge in the polls.
But the new leader now must contend with deep societal divisions that the tense vote laid bare.
Final results from Sunday's presidential race showed Nicusor Dan winning 53.6 per cent of the vote, ahead of the hard-right candidate George Simion, who during the campaign portrayed his movement as championing conservative values like patriotism, sovereignty and the family, and who styled himself as the Romanian analogue to US President Donald Trump.
The victory for the pro-EU candidate marked a significant comeback in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.
But as Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, pro-Western reformist and mayor of Bucharest, takes over Romania's presidency, fault lines remain in the country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fuelled a broad rejection of the political establishment.
Dan's decisive win was a major turnaround from the first round of elections on May 4, where Simion — a nationalist who has advocated for uniting Romania with neighbouring Moldova and is banned from entering Ukraine — had nearly double Dan's share of votes to become the clear front-runner for the second round.
Simion's surge to prominence came after Romania's first attempt to hold the presidential election late last year in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls. The country's political landscape was upended after a top court voided the ballot, alleging electoral violations and Russian interference.
While Simion was considered the favourite for the second round, a high voter turnout of 64.7 per cent in the ballot — more than in any Romanian election of the past quarter-century — is thought to have benefited Dan.
Adding to the high turnout were approximately 1.6 million votes from members of Romania's large diaspora, which is primarily concentrated in Western Europe.
Speaking to ecstatic supporters in the early hours of Monday following his victory, Dan struck a reformist tone, saying Romania was beginning "a new chapter, and it needs every one of you".
As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure — especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
After that invasion, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe's eastern flank by sending additional multinational battlegroups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and Bucharest has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance, donating a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opening an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries.
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Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year. The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024. Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947. Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term." Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership." "There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. 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The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government. The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota. Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy. India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food. Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year. The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024. Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947. Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term." Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership." "There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership." with Reuters Britain and India have signed a free trade agreement during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing a deal to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars and allow more market access for businesses. Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi met at Chequers, the British leader's official country residence outside London, where the UK and Indian trade ministers, Jonathan Reynolds and Piyush Goyal, formally signed the agreement. Starmer said it was "the biggest and most economically significant trade deal" Britain has made since leaving the European Union in 2020. Modi said it was "a historic day in our bilateral relations." Alongside the agreement, the two countries announced almost STG6 billion ($A12 billion) in trade and investment deals in areas including AI, aerospace and dairy products, and pledged to work more closely together in areas such as defence, migration, climate and health. The trade agreement between India and Britain, the world's fifth- and sixth-largest economies, was announced in May, more than three years after negotiations started, and stalled, under Britain's previous Conservative government. The UK government said the deal will reduce India's average tariff on British goods from 15 per cent to three per cent. Import taxes on whisky and gin will be halved from 150 per cent to 75 per cent before falling to 40 per cent by year 10 of the deal. Automotive tariffs will fall from over 100 per cent to 10 per cent under a quota. Britain said the deal is expected to increase bilateral trade by STG25.5 billion annually from 2040 and add almost STG5 billion a year to the British economy. India's Trade Ministry said in May that 99 per cent of Indian exports will face no import duty under the deal, which applies to products including clothes, shoes and food. Formal talks began in 2022 on a free trade agreement that then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a key goal after Britain left the EU. Johnson famously promised to have a deal done by the Diwali holiday in October of that year. The two countries held 13 rounds of negotiations without a breakthrough before talks were suspended while both nations held general elections in 2024. Almost two million people in the UK have roots in India, where Britain was the colonial power until independence in 1947. Starmer said Britain and India "have unique bonds of history, of family and of culture, and we want to strengthen our relationship further, so that it is even more ambitious, modern and focused on the long term." Speaking as England and India face off in a Test cricket series, Modi sad the sport was "a great metaphor for our partnership." "There may be a swing and a miss at times but we always play with a straight bat," he said. "We are committed to building a high-scoring, solid partnership." with Reuters

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