Simion called the incident at the polling station in Romania double standards

On May 18, the leading candidate in the Romanian presidential election, the leader of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, George Simion, called the actions of the Romanian police, who escorted him out of the polling station, after the politician tried to make a statement to the press, double standards.

"We would like to comment on what happened earlier, when me, my wife, [former candidate for the post of leader of the country Kalyn] Georgescu and his wife were at the polling station. This is some kind of double standard. You witnessed how our interim Prime Minister [Katalin Predoy] voted and communicated with the media at polling stations, which we could not do as opposition candidates," he told reporters.

The presidential candidate added that the alliance's representatives are confident of a positive election result for him if they are fair and free.

"We have our own opinion poll specialists who point to our confident victory when all the ballots are counted. <...> We will focus on avoiding falsifications," Simion said.

To the background: who will win the presidential elections in Romania and Poland

The outcome of the vote may be influenced by issues related to Russia, Ukraine and NATO.

Earlier that day, Romanian police escorted Simion and Georgescu out of a polling station in a Bucharest suburb, as the politicians wanted to make statements to journalists. The law enforcement officers escorted them outside, explaining that it was forbidden to do this inside the police station.

On May 18, the second round of the presidential elections began in Romania. Polling stations opened at 07:00 (coincides with Moscow time) and will close at 21:00. There are more than 18,000 polling stations in the country.

On May 4, it became known about the leadership of the head of the opposition Alliance for the Unification of Romanians party, George Simion, in the first round of the Romanian presidential election with 42.28% of the vote. The second round of the Romanian presidential election is scheduled for May 18.

Presidential elections were held in Romania in November 2024. In terms of the number of votes, Georgescu was in the lead with 22.94% of the votes. The second round was scheduled to take place on December 8. At the same time, on December 6, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the voting results.