Far-right victory in first round of Romania's rerun vote

An ultranationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified the EU's leaders and calls himself Donald Trump's "natural ally" has won the first round of Romania's rerun presidential vote and will face a centrist in the runoff, early estimates predict.

- Jon Henley

Initial projections after polling stations closed yesterday showed George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vaxx movement during the pandemic, comfortably in the lead with between 30% and 33%.

Neck-and-neck in second and third place were the centrist candidates Nicuşor Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, and Crin Antonescu, a veteran former senator, on 21-23%, with the nationalist former prime minister Victor Ponta trailing on 14.7%.

The two highest-scoring candidates are scheduled to face each other in a second-round runoff on 18 May, nearly six months after the original ballot was cancelled amid evidence of an alleged "massive" Russian influence campaign.

The projections are based on votes cast up until a couple of hours before polling stations closed at 9pm local time, and do not take into account the votes of Romania's very large diaspora, which can represent up to 10% of all ballots.

A far-right victory could lead to Romania, which shares a border with Ukraine and is a member of the EU and Nato, veering from its present pro-western path and becoming another disruptive force.