MAGA’s Romanian champion George Simion eyes comeback as government implodes

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Hard-right firebrand George Simion lost Romania’s presidential race last year, but as the country’s centrist government coalition crumbles, he now sees an alternative route to power.

Romania’s mainstream pro-EU parties are scrambling to keep the ultranationalist and euroskeptic Simion on the sidelines while they negotiate potential resolutions to the crisis.

But the MAGA-aligned politician is way ahead in national polls, and insists it’s time his party had a shot at governing the EU’s sixth most populous country — home to what is set to be NATO ‘s biggest airbase, on the Black Sea.

Led by Simion’s party, Romania would be a more hostile and erratic partner for Brussels: He does not want the European Commission imposing its will over public spending, would opt out of funding Ukraine and would resist common EU migration policy.

“My hope is that we have a change in power … democracy is about alternating in power, so they have to do the democratic thing and let us govern … listen to the vote of the people,” he told POLITICO.

Romania’s current crisis hinges on the country’s need to take severe austerity measures to fix its deficit. The main rupture in the governing coalition began after the center-left Social Democratic Party (PSD) withdrew its support for Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan of the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) over the scale of spending cuts.

Simion slammed the current coalition as an “unnatural alliance” of four governing parties, as it includes the the liberal Union Save Romania (USR) and the party representing the Hungarian minority (UDMR) in addition to the PSD and PNL — two parties that have alternated being in power since the fall of Communism in 1989.

For his part, Simion said: “We are willing to talk with everybody to create a government.”

Closely aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump, Simion has traveled to Washington multiple times — including for last year’s inauguration. He positions himself as a leading figure in Europe’s rising right-wing sovereigntist movement, regularly organizing “Make Europe Great Again” conferences and maintaining close ties with prominent right-wing leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen.

Ahead in the polls

Simion’s nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians party (AUR) currently has a commanding lead in polls, with POLITICO’s Poll of Polls putting it at 35 percent — far above the socialists in second place with 20 percent.

The president’s center-right PNL and the liberal USR argue that the socialists are bleeding votes to Simion’s party, and they want to distance themselves from Bolojan’s austerity measures.

Meanwhile, the prime minister now faces possible no-confidence motions early next week, which are backed by the socialists and Simion’s AUR.

The escalating situation threatens Romania’s ability to approve key defense contracts before a May deadline to access €16.68 billion from the EU’s SAFE defense loans. It also has the potential to derail the country’s access to €10 billion in Covid-19 recovery funds set to expire at the end of August.

While Simion is open to coalition talks, he also said he is “quite pessimistic” a solution can be found with the current parliament.

“So, we can have new elections, and we can have a new majority that probably will follow the trend in Europe and the trend in Italy and other countries,” he stated, pointing to the surge of right-wing parties in the EU.

However, a snap election is unlikely, as it would require the parliament in Bucharest to reject two cabinets in a row and the president to approve dissolving it — a remote possibility given centrist fears that it could hand Simion a majority.

A long crisis ahead

Anticipating a prolonged crisis, Simion said he is ready to negotiate with anyone who accepts his conditions, which include lowering the number of parliamentarians and cutting subsidies to political parties.

“They don’t seem to agree with these conditions. Maybe they will agree in the next weeks because the crisis will be a long-term one,” he noted.

If parties don’t accept his demands, Simion hopes elections can take place in three to four months.

The prime minister has suggested a minority government as a solution — though he would still need extra votes to reach the majority needed to govern.

Commenting on the crisis, Romanian President Nicușor Dan said on Wednesday evening that leaders from government parties assured him they would exclude a coalition with AUR during consultation rounds. Yet, both the PSD and PNL are still accusing each other of plotting to win AUR’s support to govern.

“In the next couple of weeks, hopefully we can find a way forward,” said the PSD’s top European Parliament lawmaker Victor Negrescu. “Mathematically, we are blocked in this situation, with each other, if we want to keep AUR and other extremists out.”

He also blamed the prime minister for disregarding his party’s concerns.

“We told Ilie Bolojan we have difficulties with how the government is being managed, being more right wing to what we agreed upon,” said Negrescu.

He added that for months the socialists had warned they could abandon the coalition if there was change in course. “There were several ways for the PM to react, to pick up the phone and call our leader, he didn’t do that.”

But the president’s PNL party and the liberal USR accuse the socialists of betraying the promises they signed up to in the coalition agreement and of fueling AUR.

“The pro-European coalition the Social Democrats just blew up was formed with the explicit objective to prevent extremist parties such as AUR to get to power,” said USR spokesperson Cristian Seidler.

“Now the socialists are planning the overthrow the government they are still part of together with these pro-Russian political forces … the sole responsibility lies with the Social Democrats should they facilitate extremists’ access to power.”

While Simion sees the crisis as an opportunity for his party to take power, he is more cautious when asked whether he wants the prime minister’s job himself.

“Not necessarily. We are interested in stabilizing the country. Of course, we have people that can occupy the prime minister seat — qualified people. But for now we want to stabilize the country because the European Commission allowed the socialists and liberals and the current coalition to have a huge deficit.”