If you happen to know any Romanian, please go tell them to vote.

@europe

(I’ll also repost this to YUROP if it’s not fitting for this place)

To say that the stakes are sky-high is an understatement. We’re not only faced with the threat of dictatorship and fascism, we are literally standing at a crossroads where we have to make a historic choice: we either vote for someone who proved to reform the state, bring integrity to the institutions, or we return to the dark times before 1989 when you were afraid to say anything publicly, out of fear that you would be detained, beaten or killed outright.

On the one hand, we have a bully who insults our allies, tours the far right parties in Europe and is showing more and more signs that he’ll rule the country as a dictator as the day passes, who only grew in popularity while being in the shadow of Russia (right now he is nastily invoking censorship from the social media platforms HE HIMSELF deleted his accounts from - so yeah, that leech doesn’t deserve to be the president even in a homeowners’ association, let alone a country). His name is George Simion.

On the other hand, we have a former world Olympic in Math, who got involved in saving Bucharest’s historical heritage, founded the 1st reformist party after 1989 with people who haven’t been in politics before, who had no track record of corruption, and who, after being voted in office at the city hall of Bucharest, showed that he cares about the city. In his term heating pipes were fixed, public transit was improved for the 1st time in a lot of years, streets were fixed, parks were cleaned and, more importantly, he managed to get the city administration out of bankruptcy. His name is Nicușor Dan.

The latest polls show Nicușor having a slight advance - but we’re still in a position where every single vote counts. If you happen to have any Romanian colleagues, friends, family members or acquaintances, ask them how they feel about the current political situation. Let them know that you care about their country, that you find it very beautiful, and that you are worried about its European course. These people generally had a rough time accommodating outside their home country, so be grateful to them for this. Ask them kindly if they are going to vote, and regardless of the answer, tell them that this vote is important and to vote for Nicușor Dan for the president of Romania.

Simion and AUR might look involved in their life out there, but they’re really using them as a bargaining chip to not only get to power, but to also get their home country into a dictatorship (previous politicians never really had this vision, at least not so blatantly open). Right now, Simion is ignoring the communities of Romanian expats, running away from at least one meeting with them, in the UK. He’s also on a tour to meet various leaders of far-right Russia-affiliated forces, instead of attending the political debates even on TVs that showed him in a favorable light in the past. His colleagues are proposing to take away the homes of people who left Romania, in a blatant violation of private property.

Simion piggybacked the Romanian diaspora, just like he did with Acțiunea 2012 (an organization with the purpose of promoting the unity between Moldova and Romania, which only served as a reason for Russia to keep its troops in Transnistria all this time) back in the day. Here are some declarations of former members: https://www.cineegeorgesimion.ro/ - you can send this website to whoever cannot believe this fact.

Right now, the race is tight. Simion is losing ground, yet he is still ahead of Dan in the polls by a few percent. The vote has already started in the diaspora and will last until tomorrow, Sunday 18th, at 9PM Romania time (yes, not local time, Romania time. Only today they’re closing at the local time). Right now there’s a huge uptick of votes compared to the 1st round of election two weeks ago, but, as I said, the race is tight. It might be a good sign, or a bad sign. We cannot let Simion win. A win for Simion will give a blow not just to us here in Romania, but to the whole of Europe and probably to NATO as well.