The views of Simion, a former football hooligan who relishes a fight with the establishment, matter: His party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), has a huge lead in opinion polls and may soon get a chance to put its case to voters if a snap election is called.
He savaged the EU’s green deal, economic and defense policies, and said Romania did not want to return to a time when larger states dominated it. “We have been occupied by these kind of dictators like we have in Russia and we had in U.S.S.R., and dictatorial tendencies from Germany,” he said. “We want to be part of Europe formed of free, sovereign nations.”
Romania has been locked in crisis without a fully functioning government since May, when AUR joined forces with the social democrats to bring down the country’s liberal-led ruling coalition.
Heir to Orbán
On the EU’s eastern flank, bordering Ukraine, Romania plays a critical role in Europe’s security, providing logistical support for the war and housing a major NATO base and a U.S. missile defense shield site.
Simion, who has described himself as “Eurorealist, not Euroskeptic,” has long been a contender for power. If he ever wins, he would potentially be a more disruptive figure for European mainstream politics than Hungary’s former premier Viktor Orbán. Last year in his campaign for the presidency, he consciously copied U.S. President Donald Trump and has proposed halting aid to Ukraine, triggering alarm among centrist politicians in Brussels.
Simion said in the interview that the constitutional solution to Romanian parties’ failure to agree a new coalition was to hold a snap general election, something that has never happened in the country of 19 million people since the fall of communism in 1989.