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Romanians Voted. What Comes Next?
A Summary And Four Scenarios To Consider
At a Crossroads
In Eastern Europe, between the battered fields of Ukraine and the Black Sea, lies Romania — a country once held up as a democratic success, now struggling to hold its ground. Political ads saturate social media, TV, and print, targeting the 19 million citizens still in the country and the 5.7 million scattered across Europe. This diaspora, overlooked, poorly treated, and ignored, could once again play a decisive role.
The stakes are high. Romania’s economy is fragile. The country has the greatest European mass exodus of workers since 2000. This is something unmatched in peacetime, anywhere in Europe. Many of the country’s most skilled and ambitious people have left, seeking stability and opportunity elsewhere, draining the nation’s talent and potential. Trust in government and public institutions has eroded after decades of corruption, broken promises, and economic mismanagement. The political class has cycled through administrations without addressing the underlying issues, feeding a deep sense of disillusionment.
Now, the country faces a hard choice: an independent technocrat without a strong party behind him, a pro-European reformer trying to keep the country on a Western path; or a populist riding a wave of…