Adnkronos Bucharest, April 30 (Adnkronos) – "It's time to bring dignity and justice back to Romanians". These are the words with which George Simion, candidate for the presidency of Romania in the elections on Sunday, May 4, opens the interview given to Adnkronos in view of the first round, in which he also speaks of Giorgia Meloni, "a great leader", and of the relationship with the EU and the United States.
Leader of the right-wing Aur party, he has been leading in all polls since the beginning of the election campaign, which he does not hesitate to define as "tough, just as we expected. We have a weekend ahead of us that will go down in history: the first round of voting will certainly not be enough, the two candidates who get the most votes will go to the runoff".
"It is a watershed vote for our country, in Romania the voters directly choose the figure of the president, who has great powers in foreign policy, but also greatly influences the government's direction. We come from a complicated period - Simion underlines - Citizens are disheartened after the cancellation of the December elections and the exclusion of important candidates such as Calin Georgescu".
And it is precisely the electorate of the excluded candidate that Simion aims to convince, after the Constitutional Court annulled the December consultation for alleged interference by Russia, guilty of having financed Georgescu's social campaigns. "Delegitimizing him and excluding him from the vote was a hard blow to our democracy. We cannot accept that the bureaucratic apparatus of the State decides who can participate and who cannot. Millions of voters felt betrayed and now it is up to us to give them new hope for the future".
The first point of his program? Fighting corruption, which he describes as “a real plague in Romania. There is a system of interests that has blocked our development for thirty years. I have no friends in the circles of power. This makes me free. Public funds must be used to guarantee services to citizens, not to finance the political system. We need total transparency on how citizens’ money is spent. And then we need an independent judiciary.”
The relationship with Russia, therefore, but also with the United States and the European Union are the central themes that have accompanied the approach to Sunday's vote. "We will work to strengthen that relationship of brotherhood that binds us to other European peoples, starting with the Italian one, but without feeling like vassals of Brussels, as the left would like" explains the leader of Aur, who publicly praises Giorgia Meloni, speaking of her as "a great leader, who works for the well-being of her fellow citizens" (with the Italian prime minister he shares the membership of the European Conservatives group, of which he is vice-president, ed.).
Simion expresses a similar thought about Donald Trump: “I am concerned about the general situation of the global economy, but I do not believe that President Trump wants to damage Europe. Of course, we are living in a period of strong tensions between Brussels and Washington. But I can only welcome President Trump's line, which leads the United States by putting the recovery of national identity first. He wants to restore dignity to his people, just as we intend to do in Romania”. Finally, speaking about the historical bond with Moscow, Simion admits that “it remains a big problem, which is why we need a strong NATO”.
And addressing the Romanian citizens who live in our country, the message he wants to send is very clear: “Italy is a second home for many Romanians. I address them by thanking them for always holding the flag of Romania high in the world. With me they will never feel like second-class citizens. They know they can contribute to the rebirth of Romania by voting for our party. I am sure they will not miss this great opportunity to change the history of our country”.