Ethnic Hungarian, Moldovan voters saved Romania's democracy
Bucharest, Romania – Last week, just before midnight on Sunday, an important piece of news spread quickly around the world: The hard-right candidate George Simion has been defeated, democracy in Romania is safe, and the liberal, pro-European mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, will be the next president of Romania.
Another-important piece of news followed, which came as a surprise to many Romanian observers but was not as widely reported internationally: Romania's ethnic Hungarians and Moldovan citizens who also hold Romanian passports voted in record numbers for Nicusor Dan, making a decisive contribution to his victory.
Conservative estimates say that over 500,000 – perhaps even over 700,000 – of these voters voted for Dan, which would account for a large proportion of his 830,000-vote lead over his opponent.
In short, without the votes of these two groups, Dan could have lost the election.
Hungarian and Moldovan votes
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania? Moldovans with dual citizenship? For those who do not know Romania well, this might sound like a niche issue to be discussed by election buffs.
This probably explains why it received little international attention on the evening of the election.
The fact is, however, that both groups play an important role not only in domestic politics in Romania, but also, by extension, in Europe.
Hungarians have been a national minority in Romania since the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, when Transylvania and other regions became part of Romania.
There are currently around one million ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which accounts for about 5.5% of the total population. Most of these ethnic Hungarian Romanians support Viktor Orban, the autocratic prime minister of neighbouring Hungary.
Just a week before the second round of Romania's presidential election, Orban gave his backing to hard-right candidate George Simion, even though Simion has an explicitly anti-Hungarian stance and was in the news several years ago for violent actions that targeted the Hungarian minority.
Orban likes to portray himself as the protector of all ethnic Hungarians outside Hungary. Nevertheless, from his perspective, backing Simion in Romania's presidential election was logical and of a higher priority because a Simion victory would have strengthened the 'sovereigntist' camp – in other words, the autocratic, pro-Russian, anti-EU camp – in Europe.
For Romania's ethnic Hungarians, however, following Orban's lead and backing Simion was not an option. It would have meant voting for a politician with deep-seated anti-minority attitudes and, ultimately, against themselves. So, they didn't.
Outstanding result for Dan
This became clear on Sunday evening, when Romania's central electoral commission, the BEC, published the figures for each district (judet).
Nicusor Dan received about 53.6% of the total vote, about 830,000 votes more than George Simion. The vote for Dan in all districts with a larger ethnic Hungarian population was massive.
Although there are no exact statistics on ethnic voting patterns, experts like the Transylvanian Hungarian sociologist Nandor Magyari estimate that Dan got between 550,000 and 600,000 votes from Romania's Hungarian minority.
'In this way, Romanian Hungarians voted for the preservation of liberal democracy and the continuation of Romania's Euro-Atlantic path,' Magyari told DW.
Some fascinating records were broken in Sunday's election: In the Romanian district of Harghita, where 85% of residents are ethnic Hungarian, an incredible 91% voted for Nicusor Dan, his best result in any Romanian district.
Moldovans vote in record numbers
Many Moldovans hold dual Moldovan-Romanian citizenship and are entitled to vote in elections in Romania.
These voters also voted for Dan in record numbers. The president-elect received about 135,000 votes in Moldova – some 88% of all votes cast there.
Most of what is now the Republic of Moldova and the Romanian region known as Moldavia were once both part of the Principality of Moldavia.
Three-quarters of the people in the Republic of Moldova are Romanian-speakers, and the country is occasionally referred to as the 'second Romanian state'.
Of the country's 2.45mn inhabitants, 640,000 hold dual Moldovan–Romanian citizenship. Many of this group live in western European countries and it is likely that they voted in large numbers for Nicusor Dan there, too.
The reason for this is that Dan's opponent, George Simion, is in favour of the reunification of Moldova and Romania and the creation of a 'Greater Romania' – an idea that is not very popular in Moldova. Simion has been barred from entering Moldova since 2014.
What's more, Simion adopts a paternalistic tone towards Moldovans, which does not go down well with most of them.
DW
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