(16 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 11 May 2025
1. Romanian presidential candidate Nicusor Dan walking on stage
2. Various top shots of rally
3. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Nicusor Dan, Romanian presidential candidate:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON SHOT 1 AND IS PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 2&4++
"We need to rebuild this country, we need to project hope. And we need, from May 19, a united Romania so that its people will be able to face the challenges inside and outside the country."
4. Various of crowd
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 13 May 2025
5. Failed debate between AUR leader George Simion and his counterpart Nicusor Dan who didn’t take part
6. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) George Simion, AUR party leader:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 7++
"George Simion is here in order for us to go back to constitutional order, to normality, to democracy, to the will of the Romanian people. And if there’s one partner who you want to work with… well that partner is represented by economic agents and the state of Romanian economy."
7. Various of failed debate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 2 May 2025
8. Various of electoral banners showing candidates Nicusor Dan and George Simion
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 14 May 2025
9. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Andrei Taranu, Romanian National School of Political and Administrative Studies professor of politics:
++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 10++
“A quarantine period for Romania is due to happen next, regardless of who becomes president. It’ll either be a quarantine from the U.S. side regarding Nicusor Dan or a quarantine from the EU regarding George Simion."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bucharest, Romania – 2 May 2025
10. Various of main entrance to Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest
STORYLINE:
Romania braces for a high-stakes presidential runoff this weekend between two starkly different candidates: hard-right nationalist frontrunner George Simion, and pro-Western reformist and incumbent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, as a geopolitical choice between East or West.
The tense vote comes as Romania is gripped by a deep political crisis after 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.
After coming fourth in last year’s canceled race, Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, backed Georgescu who was banned in March from standing in the redo.
Simion then surged to frontrunner in the May 4 rerun after becoming the standard-bearer for the hard right.
Simion’s AUR party, which proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom,” rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election, and has since doubled its support to become the second-largest party in the Romanian legislature.
Years of endemic corruption and growing anger toward Romania’s political establishment has fueled a surge in support for nationalist figures, reflecting a broader pattern seen across Europe.
To his critics, Simion is a pro-Russian extremist who threatens Romania’s longstanding membership of the European Union and NATO.
In an AP interview last week, he rejected the accusations, calling Russia his country’s main threat and that he wants Romania to be treated as “equal partners” in Brussels.
But he insists that his main goal is to restore democracy. “My platform is to return to democracy, to the will of the people,” he told the AP.
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