In Romania, votes are being cast
today to elect a new president destined to succeed liberal Klaus
Iohannis, who led the Balkan country for two five-year terms and
who by law could no longer run for office. Polls agree that it
is unlikely that any of the 14 candidates will establish
themselves as early as this first round by surpassing 50 percent
plus one of the preferences, and therefore it will most likely
be necessary to wait for the runoff round between the two top
vote-getters, already scheduled for Dec. 8, to know who will be
the new head of state. There are no great favorites,
although those with the best chances of success, according to
the forecasts of demoscopic institutes, seem to be the incumbent
premier, Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu (Pds, the heir party of
the old Communist Party), the leader of the sovereignist
far-right under the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Aur)
George Simion, given a significant rise, former liberal premier
Nicolae Ciuca (NLP) and conservative Elena Lasconi (Union Save
Romania, Usr). Ciolacu, despite the many cases of corruption and
irregularities involving members of his party in recent years,
is credited with 24 percent to 25 percent of the consensus,
compared with 15 percent to 18 percent for Simion, who in
statements to Politico yesterday stressed the closeness of his
positions to Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni. On smaller
percentages can count Ciuca and Lasconi, although surprises are
not excluded. The list of candidates includes among others
Mircea Geoana, a former foreign minister and former ambassador
to the U.S., who recently ended his term as deputy secretary
general of NATO, and who presents himself as an independent. She
noted in the campaign how her broad international experience
could be very useful for the leadership of the country, whose
strategic position on NATO's southeastern flank assumes
particular relevance in light of the protracted
Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. Between the first and likely
second rounds of presidential elections, Romania will also vote
in parliamentary elections on December 1. Romanian citizens
living abroad began voting for the presidential elections as
early as last Friday, including Italy where the Romanian
community is particularly large and where 157 polling stations
have been set up. Open from 7 a.m. local time, polling stations
will close at 10 p.m. (6-9 p.m. Italian time), with the first
results expected in the evening. Romania is a member of NATO
and the European Union, which it joined in 2007 along with
Bulgaria. For both of these Balkan countries, the possibility of
full membership in the Schengen area from next January has
become concrete, after Austria lifted its veto for their
membership relatively to land borders as well. In recent months
Bucharest and Sofia had joined Schengen but only for air and sea
crossings.
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