Tom Gallagher's reading of the Romanian election

Tom Gallagher, the leading historian of modern Romania, published this an hour ago on Twitter/X.

In Romania twenty years of presidential elections show you are doomed if you win the first round.

The success of the underdog, Nicusor Dan, with no party affiliation, and fighting a David v - Goliath battle as mayor of Bucharest, rested on the fear of city-dwellers that his uncouth opponent would wreck everything.

The main city in counties won by George Simion - Arges, Braila, Botosani, Neamt, Tulcea, Vilcea etc swung behind his moderate opponent because of the fear that material progress of the last few decades would disappear in an era of international confrontation and domestic strife .

Romanians are fed up and definitely keen to punish rulers who stole systematically and neglected to fix elementary problems. But they are also keenly aware how fragile their economic well-being is.

Simion's failure to speak about economics showed him to be dangerously unreliable among hardheaded voters who liked all or some of his nationalist message.

His zest for travelling up and down, and across Europe during the campaign, showed the super-patriot to be bored by the condition of the country.

This was an electrifying moment for Romania after 35 years of mainly stagnation by politicians, the kindest word to describe them being insipid.

A real debate about the direction of the country and what should be the priorities to focus on in troubled times and a war-torn part of Europe ensued this spring .

Behind his gentle demeanour, President Dan is a tough cookie, stubborn and resourceful.

He needs to bury the sense of betrayal left by his predecessor, the parasitic Saxon from Sibiu, Mr Iohannis and use his powerful office as an engine of renewal.

Otherwise, the ultras will soon be back, next time with a performer far more slicker and dangerous than the wretched Mr Simion.

The sovereignists will be certainly be back with someone better. Their time will come but it has not come yet.

I posted Tom's remarks on Facebook. The reply that impressed me was this from a young Romanian novelist.

Nicușor isn't an underdog, a tough cookie nor an independent. He's the puppet of the establishment. The elections are illegitimate after the December '24 cancellation. He represents the fiercely pro war EU establishment, and acts upon his commands obediently. He's also been an exceptionally bad mayor of the capital city.

I agree with most of that but also with most of the comments of Tom (who is fiercely pro-[continuing the Ukrainian] war, although fiercely anti-EU). 

I know nothing about what sort of man Nicusor Dan is. Mr Simion called him autistic. I understand what made him say that but it is not true and anyway who cares? Elon Musk says he has Asperger's syndrome and he's very effective.

I do know that the presidency is not usually very important but it is now, when the Prime Minister has resigned and the President has to arrange a new coalition government.