NicuΘor Dan is the new president of Romania. Congratulations to everyone who voted!
Good news. I hear his right-wing opponent already accepted a new position in Chad.
this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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First of all, congratulations to the Romanian people! I hope you will thrive.
I have a question, though. There often is a huge difference how a leader is perceived nationally vs. internationally. Afaik, Macron is relatively highly regarded in Europe but many French people have their issues with him. So, what do the Romanian people think of him? I'd be glad to hear from some!
Afaik, Macron is relatively highly regarded in Europe
Is he ? I might be biased by french media, but I don't feel like he is highly regarded by foreign politicians. Liberal media like him because he is one of the last few good looking and good sounding proponents of their ideas.
I must admit that I haven't paid too much attention to politics lately as I just feel drained every time I do. From what I had perceived, though, Macron seemed to be a vocal pro-European voice and generally an ally to be trusted.
@Bienenvolk there's quite a strong propaganda, coming from the traditional parties (PSD - Social Democrats and PNL - National Liberals) claiming, but later taken by the extremist parties, demonizing him because he said he doesn't say I love you to his children (or something like that), because he's not married to his partner despite having children and living with her for so long, the fact that he's still living in a rented house at his age etc.
Most notably, he is a friend of a man called Matei PΔun, who had business with Russia and Belarus and held some questionable views a while ago, but he emphasized repeatedly that he doesn't share his views. And George Simion is a persona non-grata in both Ukraine and Moldova, and pushed a lot of anti-Ukraine and anti-Moldovan narratives, so this fact was irrelevant as well.
He pretty much has the appearance of a modest man, just a regular guy doing every day stuff, driving a 20-year-old Renault Clio and living with his family, taking care of his children, something along the lines.
I'm personally following him since a while, and what I noticed was that in the previous campaign for the city hall of Bucharest, even when his opponents attacked him, they did it in a somewhat respectful way (don't know how to explain it). So he does seem like a man who gets respect and decency without explicitly asking for it.
Imo I think we'll have some interesting 5 years ahead.
Wow, that sounds good! I appreciate your long answer.
Depends how much propaganda they've ingested.
From my own research, there's two things that people are holding against him:
One is his refusal to sign the authorization for the building of a children's oncology hospital (his explanation was that they want to build it in the center where there's barely any parking and it's overcrowded as it is, and he finds the location illegal for approval, he'd have no problem with a different location), after some increased pressure, he finally signed.
The second being the issue of (hot) running water in Bucharest. An acquaintance has actually spoken to an employee of the hot water supplier and apparently the 60 or whatever year old plumbing that was being used was in horrible shape and it really needed changing. To me that seems more of a problem that has been ignored by previous administrations and should never had been allowed to reach that point. Imo, it's actually a point in his favour that he had the balls to cause so much trouble for the people in order to solve the issue.
Beyond that, he's praised for fighting corruption and stopping illegal constructions that had ties to some mafia and whatnot.
And lastly, a few years ago, we had a referendum to amend the constitution to change wording from "between spouses" to "between man and woman". Same sex marriage isn't legal in Romania, but this was an attempt to make it harder for the law to change in the future. His party wanted to vote on which stance to take or something like that. And apparently he had promised when he was elected to remain neutral arguing that it wasn't an issue that needed debating and that remaining neutral would avoid division. He said he won't renew his party membership if his party takes a stance and since they did he's since been independent. And whenever he was asked about his vote he said he voted but not which way. My guess is that he's pro same sex marriage but knows that admitting it would cost him a lot of votes since Romania is still very conservative, as proven by the millions that voted for Georgescu last year and Simion this year.
Thank you for your insight! That sounds promising.
He's got a good chance of being the least worst president so far. It's a low bar, tbh, but still. Anyway, here's to hoping he surpasses that :D
Macron is highly regarded in Europe? That clown, really? (I'm not French)
Still crazy that 45% really think that the far right alternative was a good choice...
Voter turnout was a record high of 62%
Why don't romanians vote?
It's AI slop but I'll allow it. (^^)
Congratulations! This is a good day for Romania and for Europe!
I really needed this. The alternative was ugly.
Don't worry, if the current administration doesn't deliver for its citizens and manage to introduce uncomfortable regulation on social media, the alternative is likely to get a stronger result the next time around. The day is saved for now but the processes that lead to where we are haven't stopped.
I know he's waving but damn that perspective
Is that him?
Ouuch fucking fantastic, thank you brothers and sisters of Romania! Your future is rich and may your sillicon valley grow even more prosperous (yes they have one)!
This is the way forward!
Voting for the lesser evil: this is how to do it, USA.
I mean, it is a two-round system.
First time is voting for your favorite.
Second round is voting against the worse of the two.
The US needs this, like get rid of party primaries and have a blanket non-partisan parimary where you vote for whoever. Bernie, AOC, etc.
Or better yet: ranked-choice.
Well said. It's a band aid for first-past-the-post voting. Ranked voting already includes multiple rounds, while only doing the physical voting once.
If the voters are well informed about how their ranked-choice ballot works, then its the most ideal.
Otherwise, you could end up with idiots voting for their favorite, but not filling out the 2nd, 3rd, 4th choices, which ends up wasting a vote if their favorite gets eliminated. Of course, that would be a worse case scenario, I hope the average person is functional enough to know how to do a simple task like filling out a ballot, but honestly, the average person is so stupid (or just lazy) that I don't have such high hopes.
If the most important goal is just to elminate the spoiler effect of FPTP, using a 2 round system is the more "idiot-proof" method to do so, in my opinion. I mean, the first round is effectively just a primary election that has been practiced for a long time, just without parties this time.
This is definitely achievable. Ireland uses STV (a type of ranked voting) and the average person expresses 3-4 preferences and these end up being deciding factors for lots of candidates, and the general public has a good understanding of how the system works.
If it's truly just a lesser evil, as opposed to "good", then voters will be disillusioned and the next election will result in fascism. Liberals failing to do good is the sole reason fascism is escalating worldwide.
"Better get fascism now, rather than next election" is such a dumb take
A centrist is just another goddamn neo-liberal... I think, though he did run as an independent?! Daring today, aren't we sir?
But yeah, better him than... the "alternative". It's not nice to have someone who cleans Tzar boots with his tounge as president.
@thorhop As a centrist, he did great things while being the mayor of Bucharest. He reorganized the public transit to cover more areas previously uncovered, brought new vehicles to the fleet (both trams, buses and trolleybuses), signed contracts to repair the tram lines that give you a bumpy ride and haven't been repaired since ages (funding is due from the EU, as the local budget was sabotaged by the "social-democrats" in the local council) and contracted a consulting company to create a master plan for a bike path network all around the city. He also focused on repairing the aging central heating pipes so that we won't have problems with heating in the winter anymore, especially by replacing them with new pipes with special sensors to detect leaking in time. Public lighting was also switched to LED on multiple arteries, saving money and electricity at the same time, and he managed to complete the water treatment plant at Glina, a project that should have been finished years ago by the previous "social-democrat" mayors.
Imo he's more than just an alternative, he's simply the way to go, and I'm glad he's now a president.
That's pretty neat. All good things.
Centrist, left, right, that's up to people to choose. Selling the country shouldn't be IMO.
True enough, but as we see with neo liberals in the UK, France, Germany, France, the US and the Nordics, it's easy to sell the country - under the guise of international investment, as a precept by the world bank. You're sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Yeah I hate the whole (unreasonable) debt thing too (some blackrock or vanguard literally buys a oart of your economy), but normally under EU rules you are supposed to not go too bad right (some debt is totally normal, it's the function ing debt, but not like 100% of GDP size debts)?