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Nationalist candidate George Simion won the first round of Romania’s presidential election with some 40.1% of the vote, according to the preliminary results on Sunday.
In a late-night political thriller, the official count saw the outsider independent candidate Nicu？or Dan come into second place and the run-off, leapfrogging the big-tent coalition candidate Crin Antonescu — a result shocking the traditional political establishment in the EU and NATO member state.
The Simion vs Dan head-to-head is so unexpected that no one would have dared predict it six months ago.
Pre-election polls all favoured Simion to win the first round. However, the result by Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, sent a clear message to the ruling coalition, which got together to nominate Antonescu as the main party’s candidate.
Romania now faces a tough battle in the second round in two weeks, where it will have to choose between an inward, nationalist candidate and a pro-EU and pro-NATO one.
Romanians voted for individuals, not parties
After the initial exit polls showed Simion in the lead on Sunday, most party leaders and candidates announced they would wait for the final results. However, Simion had already declared a “victory for Romania’s dignity” and called for vigilance in counting the votes to prevent fraud.
Simion has been riding an anti-establishment wave, fuelled by ultranationalist Calin Georgescu, the ex-presidential candidate whose victory in the cancelled elections in December 2024 has thrown Romania into unprecedented turmoil.
Also, parts of Romania's diaspora showed strong support for Simion: 77% of Romanians voting in Italy and 80% of those in Spain backed the AUR party leader on Sunday, preliminary results show.
He broke away from the traditional on-stage appearance next to other party leaders and supporters, opting for a Georgescu-style statement alone at a desk.
“Today, the Romanian people have voted, the Romanian people have spoken. This is a victory of Romanian dignity, the victory of those who haven’t lost hope, of those who still believe in Romania, in a free, respected, sovereign country,” Simion said on Sunday evening.
Simion, whose popularity has steadily risen in recent years, is a vocal critic of the EU, particularly its continued support of Ukraine. He also has a standing ban on entry to Ukraine and Moldova.
Judging by the results, Romanians have chosen to vote for individuals, and not political parties, pointing to the failure of the big tent coalition — which included the centre-left PSD, liberal party PNL and the Hungarian minority party UDMR/RMDSZ — to inspire its supporters.
According to Euronews Romania sources, the liberals have already lobbed accusations at the PSD of not doing enough to mobilise their voters across the country, especially in rural areas, to throw their weight behind the coalition candidate, Antonescu.
Some 53% of Romanians went to the polls on Sunday, according to official figures, indicating higher interest among those eligible to vote than in the annulled election in December.
For more updates, follow Euronews Romania’s live coverage on www.euronews.ro.
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British counterterrorism officers have taken several Iranian men into custody over a suspected plan to launch an attack at an unnamed site in London, the Metropolitan Police confirmed on Sunday.
The arrests were made on Saturday across different parts of England, with five men between the ages of 29 and 46 held on suspicion of preparing "a terrorist act".
Four of those detained are Iranian nationals, while efforts to confirm the identity and nationality of the fifth individual are still ongoing.
All five are currently being interviewed at police stations and have not been formally charged. Investigators are also carrying out searches at addresses in London, Manchester, and Swindon.
Authorities said the suspected plot focused on a specific location, the details of which are being withheld “for operational reasons.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Counter Terrorism Command, said police are still trying to determine the motivation behind the suspected plot, as well as whether there is any ongoing danger to the public.
In a separate case, police revealed that three other Iranian men — aged 39, 44, and 55 — were arrested in London as part of an unrelated investigation into a possible national security breach.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the arrests as a stark reminder of the need to remain vigilant in the face of evolving security challenges. Cooper said these are “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats."
She added, “The government continues to work with police and intelligence agencies to support all the action and security assessments that are needed to keep the country safe,”.
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While no direct link to Iran has been established in the main case, domestic security agency MI5 has warned of a growing danger from individuals or operations with ties to Tehran.
In a statement last October, MI5 Chief Ken McCallum said that security services had disrupted 20 “potentially deadly” plots linked to Iran since 2022, many of which targeted dissidents based in the UK.
He also warned that rising tensions in the Middle East could cause more hostile actions from Iran in the UK.
In March 2024, Pouria Zeraati — a presenter at a Persian-language channel critical of Iran’s leadership — was stabbed outside his home in London. Two suspects were later tracked to Romania and arrested over the attack.
The UK’s national threat level for terrorism remains “substantial”, meaning an attack is considered likely.
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Russia launched a large-scale drone assault on Ukraine overnight from Saturday into Sunday, deploying 165 unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
In the capital Kyiv, the attacks triggered fires that left eleven people injured, including two children, according to the State Emergency Services (SES).
The SES reported that the attack affected three districts of the capital: Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Shevchenkivskyi.
In Obolonskyi, a blaze damaged a 12-storey residential building.
"When it hit, we didn’t know what to do. I was with my son, and I said to him: ‘Come on, let’s go!’ I grabbed him like this, in my pyjamas, and ran over here. We saw a neighbour come out and started running away," Nadiya, one of its residents, said.
“We saw people coming down the stairs to evacuate. We were all sitting here in the dark," she added.
"There was a strong fire, they were putting it out, and we were sitting here. Two guys got hurt, an ambulance came, but they didn’t take them, probably they were under a lot of stress."
Municipal workers clean up near burnt cars and a crater made by a drone in the residential area following Russia's air raid in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, May 4, 2025. Efrem Lukatsky/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved
Meanwhile, in Sviatoshynskyi, residential buildings were affected by fire, and in Shevchenkivskyi, local infrastructure bore the brunt of the attack, with roads and electricity poles damaged.
The SES said that 75 firefighters were deployed to tackle the blazes, all of which have now been extinguished.
Further south, the central region of Cherkasy also sustained damage following Russian shelling.
In the town of Cherkasy, the facades and windows of multi-storey buildings were destroyed, along with warehouses belonging to a furniture company, a trading base and garden structures.
"There was no whistle, no noise, nothing, it just hit us so hard that the windows blew out. Thank God we are alive," one resident, Vasyl Shevchenko, recounted the attack.
"They say that you need to take packages, take documents, take this and that. In such a situation, what can you take? We just took our underwear and ran."
Preliminary reports indicate that 10 flats were damaged during the overnight strikes, two of which were completely destroyed by fire.
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Emergency services mobilised more than 100 rescuers and 26 vehicles to respond to the affected areas, where both homes and businesses were impacted by the fires.
According to the Air Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Telegram channel, the regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk were also targeted during the overnight strikes.
Ukraine’s military says it shot down 69 Shahed-type drones and other UAVs, while 80 went off radar.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry released footage on Sunday, claiming it showed Russian forces striking Ukrainian military positions in the southern Kherson region. Euronews could not independently verify its authenticity.
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