Far-right Trump ally secures decisive win in first round of Romania’s presidential election rerun

George Simion will face centrist Bucharest mayor Nicuor Dan in runoff vote

An ultranationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine, has vilified the EU's leaders, and calls himself Donald Trump's natural ally" has won the first round of Romania's rerun presidential vote and will face a centrist in the runoff, as vote counting nears its end.

With 99% of votes counted late on Sunday, George Simion, whose far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) began as an anti-vax movement during the pandemic, was comfortably in the lead on a projected 40.5% of the vote.