Before Sunday’s midnight, the most important news worldwide spread quickly: Hard Right candidate George Simian is defeated, safe in Romania, and Bucharest’s liberal, Pro-Europeare Mayor, Nicasore Dan, will be the next President of Romania.
The second most important piece of reports came as a wonder for many Romanian supervisors, but was not widely reported internationally: Romania’s ethnic Hungarian and Moldovan citizens who conduct Romanian passports, voted in record numbers for Nicasore Dan, which gave a decisive contribution to their victory.
Orthodox estimates say more than 500,000-perhaps more than 700,000 these voters voted Dan, which would be responsible for the major ratio of his 830,000-votes on his opponent.
In short, the thesis could lose the election, without the votes of two groups.
Why do Hungarian and Moldovan votes matter?
Ethnic Hungarian in Romania? Moldovan with dual citizenship? For those who do not know Romania well, it may look like a top issue discussed by election enthusiasts.
This probably explains why it paid a little international attention to the evening of election.
However, the fact is that both groups not only play an important role in domestics politics in Romania, but in Europe in detail.
Hungarian PM supports anti -Hungarian candidate
The people of Hungary have been a national minority in Romania since the disintegration of the Austro-Hungerian Empire after the World War, when Transylvania and other regions became part of Romania.
Currently Romania has about one million ethnic Hungarians, which is about 5.5% of the total population. Most of the thesis supports the ethnic Hungarian Romanian neighboring Hungarian autocratic Prime Minister Victor Orban.
Just a week before the second round of Romania’s presidential election, Orban gave his support to the hard-right candidate George Simian, even though Simian has a clear anti-Hungarian stance and was in the news many years ago for violent works targeting Hungarian minorities.
Orban likes to portray him as a protector of all ethnic Hungarians outside Hungary. Nevertheless, from its point of view, supporting Simian in Romania’s presidential election was of logical and high priority as a Simian victory would have strengthened other words, autocratic, pro-European, Anti-European Union’s Camp-in Europe in the “sovereign” camp.
For Romania’s ethnic Hungarian, however, Simian was required on the option after the leadership and support of the Orban. This would mean that a politician will have to vote deeply with an anti-antitud and finally, against the subject. So, they did not.
Outing results for Niksor Dan
This became clear on Sunday evening, when the Central Election Commission of Romania, BEC published data for each district (Jude).
Niksor Dan received around 53.6% of the total vote, about 830,000 votes more than George Simian. A large ethnic Hungarian population with a dan for Dan in all districts which is largely.
Although there are absolutely no figures on the ethnic polling pattern, experts such as the Transylvanian Hungarian sociologist Nandor Magayari estimate that Dan received 50,000 to 600,000 votes from Romania’s Hungarian minority in Romania.
“Thus, the Romanian Hungarians voted for the protection of liberal democracy and the continuation of the Euro-Atlantic path of Romania,” Majari told DW.
Some attractive records were broken in Sunday’s election: Hargita’s Romanian district, where 85% of the residents are ethnic Hungarians, an incredible 91% turnout for Nikusar Dan, which is the best result in any Roman district.
The idea of popular reunion in Moldova
Many Moldovan have double Moldovan – Romanian citizenship and are entitled to votes in elections in Romania.
Thesis voters voted for Dan in record numbers. The President-Funds received around 135,000 votes in Moldova, some voted 88% of all the votes there.
Mold was once part of the princely state of Moldwia, known as Moldova Republic and Romanian region, which is known as Moldavia.
Three-fourths of people in the Republic of Moldova are Romanian speaking, and the country is sometimes called the “second Romanian state”.
Of the 2.45 million inhabitants of the country, 640,000 have dual Moldovan – Romanian citizenship. Many of this group live in Western European countries and are likely to vote in large numbers for Nikusar Dan.
The reason for this is that Dan’s rival, George Simian, Moldova and Romania’s reunion and a “Greater Romania” are in favor – an idea that is not very popular in Moldova. Simian has been barred from entering Moldova since 2014.
What is more, Simian adopts an ancestral tone to Moldovans, which does not go down well with most of them.
Hungarian minority of Orban and Romania
The Hungarian Democratic alliance at Romania’s Hungarian minority party Romania (UDMR) has been a part of almost every ruling coalition in Romania since 1996 and has played a decisive role in promoting harmony between two historical archives, Romania and Hungary.
In recent years, Orban has been near Havar, for his own ends in the ethnic Hungarian -Romania abroad. More than 90% of double Romanians – Hungarian citizenship voted for him and his Fides party in recent elections.
Indeed, by the last week, the UDMR had almost turned into a branch of Orban’s party.
This was followed by a major change: UDMR and its president, Hanor Kalemen, and Hungarian Churches in Romania, all opposed Orban’s recommendation to vote for Simian.
“Orban made a mistake,” told DW by the Transylvanian-Hungerian lawyer and former UDMR politician Peter Aqua-Covax. “He believed that Hungarians of Transylvania would swallow in any way – even his international political nonsense – but he was wrong.”
Nevertheless, Eckstein-Kovacs does not see a rupture between Udmr and Fidesz. “This is a crack in the relationship, not to break.”
Sociologist Nandor Magayari believes that “Overall, there will be great supporters of Hungarian Orban in Romania.”
Romania – Moldova Tice
The Republic of Moldova, after Ukraine, is the most affected country with Russian aggression.
The Moldovan region of Transnistria is run by a separatist, Pro-Masco rule. In addition, Russia has been using energy supply as a means of pressurizing Moldova for decades.
In the interests of its own safety and for other reasons, Romania has long been helping neighbor Moldova to loose economic relations with Russia and compete with Russian effects. Sometimes, however, the support is dull.
Unlike his predecessor Klaus Iohanis, the President-Foundation is interested in the Republic of Nicasore Dan Moldova and its welfare.
In a speech of his victory in the early hours of Monday, Dan clearly thanked those in Moldova who voted for him.
Although he forgot to mention the ethnic Hungarian at that time, he did this in a television interview and the next day in a telephone call with the UDMR leader.
This article was the original published in German.
