Romania passed a major test for its young democracy as a centrist independent won the race for president, withstanding a surge of the far right.Nicusor Dan, the mayor of capital city Bucharest, defeated George Simion,

Elon Musk and David Sacks, both White House advisers, weighed in separately on the election in Eastern Europe.

Nicusor Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, defeated George Simion, a nationalist aligned with President Trump who had been seen as the front-runner.

Defeating populists never signals an easy return to the status quo ante.

The Russian ambassador to Romania, Vladimir Lipaev, recently alleged that France had interference in Romania’s presidential elections, echoing far-right defeated presidential candidate George Simion.

BUCHAREST, Romania — The pro-European Union candidate in Romania’s tense presidential runoff has taken a lead in the polls, preliminary electoral data shows, in a closely watched vote against a hard-right nationalist that could determine the geopolitical direction of the NATO member country.

The Kremlin on Monday described Romania's presidential election as "strange", saying the pro-Russian candidate who won an aborted vote last year had been unfairly disqualified.

George Simion, the leader of the far-right party AUR, announced Tuesday, May 20, that he would challenge the result of Romania's May 18 presidential election, in which pro-EU centrist Nicușor Dan emerged as the winner,