As Romania gears up for its high-stakes presidential runoff, nationalist frontrunner George Simion isn’t holding back. The outspoken leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) is now accusing Moldova’s pro-EU leadership of meddling in Sunday’s vote—and trying to tip the scales in favor of his rival, centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan.
Simion, who stormed through the first round on May 4 with over 40% of the vote, took to social media Friday to warn his supporters of what he called “massive fraud.” “Campaigning is over—it’s time to stop the theft!” he wrote on Facebook, slamming Moldova’s government for allegedly tampering with the democratic process. “They’ve started stealing votes. We’re not going to let them get away with it.”
With nearly a third of Moldova’s population holding Romanian citizenship, their votes matter—and this time around, early turnout in Moldova has raised eyebrows. By midday, more than 50,000 diaspora votes had reportedly been cast—an eye-popping 70% jump from the same point in the first round. AUR quickly cried foul, calling the numbers anything but coincidental.
The party also pointed a finger at Moldova’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), accusing it of quietly steering voters toward Dan. Meanwhile, media outlets like Pro TV Chișinău weren’t spared either—AUR charged the station with staging a biased and “illegal” campaign to prop up the establishment’s favorite under the cloak of journalism.
Moldovan officials swiftly fired back, rejecting the allegations outright. “We urge all political actors to show restraint and respect the democratic process,” said government spokesman Daniel Vodă, while encouraging Romanian citizens in Moldova to vote “freely and fearlessly.”
Tensions have been simmering since Romania’s Constitutional Court threw out last year’s election results, citing shady campaign practices and murky claims of Russian interference—accusations the Kremlin has flatly denied. That annulled vote had conservative independent Călin Georgescu in the lead, sparking outrage from Simion, who labeled the court’s move a “coup d’état.”
Already banned from setting foot in Moldova—whose EU ambitions he’s publicly scorned—Simion has long dismissed the neighboring country as a “fabricated state” with no future in Brussels. But with the runoff looming, his camp insists the real fight is against what they see as a globalist push to shut down rising nationalist movements across Eastern Europe. Whether Romanians agree will be decided at the ballot box.
