(7 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 6 May 2025
1. Various of interview
2. SOUNDBITE (English) George Simion, Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party leader and candidate for president of Romania:
“The Romanians are upset. It’s not every day in a European Union state member you have annulled elections. Actually, it never happened until now. So of course the Romanians want a change and I represent the change. Not the governmental candidate, not the current mayor of Bucharest. I am a person who was never in government and was never partners for those who made this, what I call, coup d’etat against the will of the people.”
++DIP TO WHITE++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) George Simion, Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party leader and candidate for president of Romania:
“We just had our prime minister sacked, they don’t have a majority, it will be hard to obtain a new majority. Of course, we had some proposals for prime ministers, now we are in an extraordinary situation. In my opinion, and in many Romanian opinions, the rightful president should have been Calin Georgescu, and if he will want, If he asks to be prime minister, I will nominate him, because he was the one voted by the Romanians. I respect democracy. ”
++DIP TO WHITE++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) George Simion, Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party leader and candidate for president of Romania:
“‘We are in an extraordinary situation right now, so my platform is to return to democracy, to the will of the people, to guarantee freedom, freedom of elections, freedom speech. I was only 3 (years old) at the revolution and never thought I would end up fighting for the same things my parents went on the street at the revolution. But from what I see, for freedom you have to constantly fight. ‘’
++DIP TO WHITE++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) George Simion, Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party leader and candidate for president of Romania:
“I do not agree to send any soldier outside NATO countries and I don’t think the escalation of the war is a solution. Donald Trump won the elections under a mandate in which he promised peace. Now he must deliver peace.”
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Sitting at a desk inside Romania’s sprawling Parliament building in the capital, presidential front-runner George Simion accuses the current government of attacking democracy and says he is the only candidate who hasn’t been tainted by holding power.
The 38-year-old leader of the hard-right nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, won a landslide in Romania’s first-round presidential election redo on Sunday and will face pro-Western reformist Nicusor Dan in a runoff on May 18.
He says his success proves that voters are ready for change, and insists that is what he represents.
“I am a person who was never in government, and was never partners with those who made this … coup d’etat against the will of the people," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday in an interview in the Palace of the Parliament building in Bucharest.
Romania’s political landscape was shaken last year when a top court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped the first round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
In March, Georgescu was barred from standing in the rerun election, and Simion emerged as the standard-bearer for the hard right.
Sunday’s vote underscored strong anti-establishment sentiment among voters and signaled a shift from traditional mainstream parties.
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