| Romania, up to now, has had a love affair with NATO. But all of a sudden, the allies fear that a far-right anti-NATO populist may become the country’s president, a post that, according to the country’s constitution, has huge powers. How did this become possible? Is NATO at risk? Is the country's future at stake? Young people in Bucharest have expressed their fears. Today, Romania is home to the biggest NATO airbase in Europe, even bigger than Ramstein in Germany, and hosting an important element of the US missile shield. According to a 2024 opinion poll, 81% of Romanians would vote to stay in NATO if asked, and only 8% would vote to leave, a very high level of support among the member states. Romanians have tended to fear Russia since Soviet times. Even under the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania was relatively independent from Moscow. It was the only country from the Warsaw Pact that did not send troops to quash the 1968 Prague uprising.
In Romania, NATO seems to symbolise power at the highest national level. The outgoing President, Klaus Iohannis, was a candidate for NATO secretary general. Mircea Geoana, a former Romanian foreign minister who was NATO deputy secretary general, was an independent candidate to become president of Romania. These plans, however, turned out to be a fiasco for both of them. Last June, Iohannis withdrew, clearing the way for Mark Rutte to take the post, while Mircea Geoana obtained only 6% after being accused during the campaign of using a troll farm against his competitors, plagiarism, plus having other skeletons in his closet. The first round of the presidential election last Sunday was a cliffhanger. Opinion polls foresaw the incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, an uncharismatic social democrat, to face hard-right politician George Simion, who opposes military aid to Ukraine. | 