Romanian hard-right opposition leader George Simion, the favorite to win a presidential election re-run, said on Friday he is the only candidate who could stop a potential withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.
European Union and NATO member Romania will repeat the two-round election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling, which Moscow denied.
There are wider concerns in Romania over a potential cut in U.S. troop numbers in Europe and the future of NATO as U.S. media has reported that Washington is drawing up plans to cut troops in eastern Europe.
Simion, 38, the leader of the opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), Romania's second-largest party, is an admirer of Trump and his MAGA movement.
He has called the cancellation a coup and said it made the U.S. more likely to cut its military presence in the country.
“I don't know what those who made a coup on democracy on December 6 would have expected from the United States, not to react, not to withdraw troops, recognize the election cancellation and applaud it?” Simion said.
AUR developed from a fringe anti-vaccination group during the COVID pandemic into the leading opposition force, appealing to the working-class diaspora and young voters and building on popular anger with mainstream politicians.
Simion has supported restoring Romania's pre-World War Two borders, which include areas now in Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, leading him to be declared persona non grata in the latter two countries.
On Friday he said a ban on him entering the two states were “abusive restrictions which were enforced by individuals with Soviet reflexes” and said it would end with his election.
