Romania’s Finest Hour …Or Its Peril

Romania faces one of the most consequential elections on Sunday

Romanian voters head to the polls on Sunday in one of the most consequential elections in modern history. The presidential runoff is a competition between the pro-democracy pro-Western independent candidate Nicușor Dan, mayor of Bucharest, and the populist, isolationist George Simion, who parrots Kremlin narratives and anti-European propaganda. The same day, Poland holds its first round of presidential elections. The outcomes of the Romanian and Polish elections will have a significant impact on Europe and on the security in the region, including on the war in Ukraine.

I am currently in Romania. On Sunday I am going to the polls first thing in the morning, to vote for Nicușor Dan. Never in its post-communist history has Romania been in greater danger than now. If the isolationist-populist option prevails, Romania’s economic, political, and international collapse will not be gradual but sudden – literally overnight. On Monday morning, Romanians would wake up in a country they would no longer recognize: poorer, less secure, isolated, and viewed with skepticism. And that would be only the beginning, the beginning of self-inflicted nightmare.

Every post-communist election in Romania has been high-stakes, yet never before have I feared so much for Romania – for its democratic survival, for its Western values, and for its security in the face of foreign threats. Even though the path has been winding, the direction has always been clear: West, not East; integration, not isolation; democracy – imperfect as it is – rather than authoritarianism. Until now.

Campaigns anticipate the attitude and behavior candidates will adopt once elected. Abusers of power and wanna-be dictators tell us in advance what they plan to do – or at least try to do. When a candidate declares he will fire hundreds of thousands of public employees, we should believe him. When he threatens journalists and opponents, says he will deal „individually” with the “bewildered” voters who don’t support him, when he proliferates insults, becomes physically and verbally violent and promises revenge, he shows us exactly what is coming. When he repeats the same narratives we hear from Putin, it is no coincidence. That is precisely what lies ahead if he gets elected.

Unlike other countries that have slid into authoritarianism, Romania is not there yet. Out of anger, frustration, discontent, and various other reasons - for many people legitimate - we have put ourselves on the brink of chaos. Fortunately, in Romania we still have a chance. We can choose decency, common sense, education and competence; we can choose a democratic, Western-oriented Romania; we can choose a change that does not mean “setting the country on fire” and destroying everything we have built.

Elections have consequences. One vote has power. I encourage Romanians to go to vote and choose to keep Romania on its democratic Western path.