Following years of nationalist discourse that also went against Romania’s ethnic Hungarians, the hard-right leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) George Simion is fighting for every vote to ensure his victory in the presidential elections on Sunday.
As part of his strategy, he has recalibrated his nationalist political platform and is now appealing to the Hungarian community — known for its disciplined approach to voting — and their party.
At the same time, he is courting Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for a future political alliance in the EU, seeking Budapest’s strong influence on the Romanian Hungarian community.
While commanding a significant win in the first round and still having the first chance, Simion’s victory next Sunday is not yet a done deal, according to the latest polls in Romania.
Recently, Simion has been actively addressing his political positions, rejecting the labels the European political scene bestowed upon him. Now, he says he is neither a Eurosceptic nor a pro-Russian politician and is tired of the relentless name-calling, especially from abroad.
“I am a Euro-realist,” Simion told Euronews. “We want a Europe of nations, and I am the person who fought the most before entering politics against Russian propaganda.”
Amid a public charm offensive towards Orbán and Romania’s Hungarian community, political sources in Budapest have told Euronews that emissaries from Simion’s campaign have been and are in contact with Orbán’s government, ahead of the decisive vote next Sunday.
The overtures towards Orbán have also been telegraphed by Simion since winning the first round of Romania’s presidential elections, and as he now battles independent candidate Nicusor Dan to win the presidency, Simion is hoping Orbán will wield his influence with the Hungarian community across the border to obtain much-needed votes.
Furthermore, in seeking an alliance with the Hungarian premier if he emerges victorious next Sunday, Simion is also hoping for a wider central and eastern European alliance directly linked to US President Donald Trump.
Simion outlined his foreign alliance doctrine in an interview with Euronews and Euronews Romania on Tuesday, right after coming in first in the presidential election’s initial round.
“We are the natural allies of the (Republican party) GOP in the United States. We are perfectly aligned ideologically with the MAGA movement. So as (Italian Premier) Giorgia Meloni does, we will work very well with the Trump administration,” Simion said.
“We have many friends. We know each other and we will collaborate, and we will be serious partners for the US on the eastern flank of NATO. We have elections in May, on 18 May, both in Romania and Poland. And we hope to have two pro-MAGA presidents, both in Bucharest and in Warsaw,” he emphasised.
In the same interview and then in the first presidential debate between him and Dan, organised last Thursday, Simion appealed to the ethnic Hungarians of Romania who backed the tent coalition candidate Crin Antonescu to the hilt in the first round.
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR in Romanian/RMDSZ in Hungarian) is a member of the governing big tent.
In a major shift of his political views, Simion said that “the Hungarians, the UDMR party are a serious political partner, the only serious political party here in Bucharest from the government coalition (…), they have a professional leadership.”
He then reached out to Hungary’s Orbán, who has a strong influence on the Hungarian community in Romania.
“I would like in many aspects to follow in the footsteps of Viktor Orbán,” Simion said. “Of course, we have some red lines, of course, our stances differ in some aspects, but Viktor Orbán has proven to fight for family, for democracy, for Christianity inside the EU institutions, so they will be partners for us, both Fidesz and UDMR.”
He went even further in the first presidential debate organised by Euronews Romania in Bucharest last Thursday, saying that “many of Orbán’s positions, not all, will be state policy also in Romania,” which must have come as a surprise for his conservative and nationalist base at home.
He said “ethnic Hungarians are good citizens of Romania” and that those who seek to insert a wedge between Hungarians and Romanians “must go to the garbage bin of history”.
“I want to tell those who think that they can continue feeding on this fantasy, the conflict between Romanians and Hungarians, that their time has passed.”
“Now is the time of a Europe of nations, a Christian Europe, in which we will fight for our right to be European citizens,” Simion said in the debate.
Orbán: We fully agree
Simion’s statements to Euronews and Euronews Romania were widely circulated by the Hungarian media. Then, the day after the presidential debate, Orbán referenced Simion in his own speech, saying that “we fully agree”. Then the Hungarian PM said in a post on X that while “Romania’s elections are none of our business … we assure the Romanian people and their future president: Hungary stands for unity, not division.”
“We will not support any form of political isolation against Romania or its leaders. Romanians can count on Hungarians in their fight for Christianity and sovereignty,” Orbán emphasised.
Simion quickly replied on Twitter: “We have a fight to win together.”
Yet Orbán’s statement drew immediate backlash from UDMR/RMDSZ President Kelemen Hunor who responded in a Facebook video on Sunday that “Simion is not a friend of the Hungarians—and never will be.”
Recalling the multitude of Simion’s actions against the use of the Hungarian language and national symbols in Romania, while the rights of the Romanian community in Ukraine are Simion’s central tenet for not supporting Ukraine — and a key Kremlin narrative propagated by Simion’s ally Calin Georgescu, who nearly won the elections last December — Kelemen Hunor said, “George Simion is not a sovereignist; he is a charlatan.”
“Each cell (in his body) represents the principle that Hungarians don’t have a place in Romania.”
Hunor also added that anyone who does not know who Simion is must follow his physical and verbal violence in the Romanian parliament, where AUR has acted as a vocal opposition.
Later on Sunday, Orbán said he spoke with Hunor by phone, reiterating that Hungary does not interfere in Romania’s election and that ultimately the Hungarian party’s position prevails in this debate: “the Hungarian government deems that Romania’s Hungarian Democratic Party’s position to be decisive, the interest of the Transylvanian Hungarians is indicative.”
“We have always cooperated with all Romanian leaders, of all times, for the progress of the Transylvanian Hungarians’ life and existence,” Orbán said.
In the past, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party politicians have slammed Simion as anti-Hungarian. In 2024, Fidesz withdrew from negotiations to join the Eurosceptic ECR group in the European Parliament after Simion’s AUR party joined the bloc.
“Fidesz will never share a group with such a party in the European Parliament. It’s not negotiable,” Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said in June 2024. Later, the spokesperson of the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács, also labelled AUR anti-Hungarian.
Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community numbers more than 1 million people, mostly located in the Transylvania region, among whom Orbán remains very popular and well-respected.
All Hungarian governments, including Orbán’s, have historically been staunch UDMR/RDMSZ allies and strategic supporters of the Hungarian community in Romania.
