Five months after the initial vote was canceled due to suspected Russian meddling, the hard-right eurosceptic is leading opinion polls ahead of the first round of voting in the EU and NATO member nations. The accusations have been refuted by Moscow.
After replacing far-right candidate Călin Georgescu, who won the most votes on the canceled ballot but is now prohibited from competing, Simion intends to capitalize on the general outrage over the cancelation.
Simion, 38, has backed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign, criticizes the EU’s leadership, and opposes military aid to neighboring Ukraine. He was a conservative Christian who backed a failed 2018 referendum that sought to outlaw marriage between people of the same sex.
