The Electoral Landscape of Romanian Society in the 2024–2025 Presidential Campaigns: Problems and Solutions

The dramatic events that took place in Romania after the first round of the presidential elections in November 2024 caused a political crisis in the country and concern on the part of Euro-Atlantic structures. The results of these elections, in which the right-wing radical Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won, were annulled, but they showed the authorities, sociologists and political strategists the need to more closely study and understand what the real Romanian electorate is, how to build the electoral process in order to avoid dangerous imbalances in the country’s political life. The results of the November 2024 elections were the result of voters’ strong dependence on dishonest propaganda on social media. Previous findings by sociologists that Romania’s electoral landscape is strongly dependent on regionalization and demographic factors were also confirmed. Regions with a high degree of economic development, urbanization and education support right-liberal pro-European discourses and are less inclined to trust sovereigntists. Residents of small towns and rural areas are more susceptible to the discourse of populist far-right groups. As the first round of the 2024 presidential elections showed, they are more susceptible to political technologies and manipulations on social networks. All this was taken into account when organizing the new round of elections. The victory of the liberal and Europeanist Nicusor Dan in the repeat presidential elections in May 2025 did not come easily, but it showed how the activation of wealthy and highly educated voters in large cities changed the electoral landscape of Romania in favor of the Euro- Atlantic course, against the far-right nationalists advocating unification with the Republic of Moldova, inciting hatred towards the large Hungarian diaspora inside the country, nostalgic for the legionary past of “Greater Romania”, part of whose territories are now outside the borders of the Romanian state.

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