Political Earthquakes Marks Europe’s Vote In Romania, Poland and Portugal

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Political earthquakes marked Europe’s “Super Sunday” of elections in Romania, Poland and Portugal, with a pro-Russian candidate being beaten in the Romanian presidential vote.

With 99 percent of the ballots counted, the centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, was set to win Romania’s pivotal presidential election, according to official figures.

Dan, a pro-European Union independent, was eight points ahead of his pro-Russia rival, George Simion, seen by critics as far right.

Results from Romania’s central election authority showed Dan, who had cast the second round vote as a battle between “a pro-western and an anti-western Romania”, at 54.2 percent. His main rival George Simion, had 45.8 percent.

A victory of Simion, viewed as far right by critics and a self-professed U.S. President Donald J. Trump admirer, would have led to tensions with the European Union and NATO military alliance.

Dan, the capital’s two-term mayor, who made his name fighting corrupt property developers, said the results showed voters seeking “profound change.”

Voters, he added, wanted “functioning state institutions, less corruption, a prosperous economy and a society of dialogue, not hate, have won”.

CONCEDING DEFEAT

Simion conceded early on Monday, after earlier claiming he had won the election. “We may have lost a battle, but we will certainly not lose the war,” he warned his opponents on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Elsewhere in Eastern Europe in Poland the pro-EU centrist Rafał Trzaskowski and historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the populist right, have each secured about 30 percent of the vote in a nail-bitingly close first round of Poland’s presidential election.

The vote sets the stage for a runoff round in two weeks that will force voters to choose between starkly different visions of the country’s future.

An exit poll by the Ipsos institute released as voting closed on Sunday, suggested Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and candidate from the prime minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition, had claimed 30.8 percent of the vote in the first round. Trailing him was Nawrocki, who has been endorsed by the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), with 29.1 percent of the vote.

Trzaskowski had long been the favourite to win the election, but his lead over Nawrocki had narrowed in recent weeks. The exit poll, however, pointed to a first-round result closer than anticipated between the frontrunners, yielding a result likely to make Trzaskowski and Tusk nervous.

Soon after the exit poll was released, Tusk reacted on social media. Everything was at stake now, he wrote, adding that “the next two weeks will decide the future” of Poland. “Not one step back!”.

The sentiment was echoed by former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski. “The stakes are huge,” Kwaśniewski, whose term ran from 1995 to 2005 and included Poland joining Nato and the EU, told broadcaster TVP Info. “We are fighting for Poland to be on the side of European democracies, [otherwise] it’d be on the side of European troublemakers, those who want to go down the [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán or [Slovak Prime Minister Robert] Fico route.”
AMBASSADORIAL NOMINATIONS

The outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, is a close ally of the previous PiS government and a supporter of Donald J. Trump.

He opposed the changes pursued by the new Tusk administration and blocked some decisions, including ambassadorial nominations.

An opposition win would extend the current deadlock, prompting years of political instability, analysts said.

Further away in fellow EU member state Portugal’s incumbent, center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) has won the country’s third snap general election in three years.

Yet they once again fallen well short of a majority as the underperforming socialists were left vying for second place with the Chega party, seen by critics as far right, taking a record 22 percent of the vote.

By midnight on Sunday, with 99 percent of the votes counted, the AD – led by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro – had won 32.1 percent of the vote and taken 86 seats in Portugal’s 230-seat assembly, leaving it far shy of the 116 needed for a majority.

The Socialist party (PS) had taken 23.4 percent of the vote to Chega’s 22.6 percent and the two were tied on 58 seats each.

POLITICAL COMEBACK

In the last election, held 14 months ago, the AD won 80 seats, the PS 78 and Chega 50.

Chega’s leader, André Ventura, said his party’s “impressive” showing at the polls – well up on the 18 percent of the vote it took last time round.

But Chega’s victory will be tempered by Montenegro’s explicit refusal to strike any deals with Ventura’s party.

“Governing with Chega is impossible for three reasons,” Montenegro has said.

“It isn’t reliable in its thinking; it behaves like a political weathervane, always changing its mind, and it’s not suited to the exercise of government,” the president added.

The small Liberal Initiative party – which could throw its weight behind Montenegro, bringing the AD around seven extra seats – has also categorically refused to do anything that would help Chega into power.

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