“WE ARE TOTALLY agreeing with the MAGA ideology. We are a Trumpist party,” George Simion, the candidate of Romania’s hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), told the foreign press on May 4th, shortly before voting closed in the first round of the country’s presidential election. For European Union officials trying to get the measure of the man, his words cannot have been reassuring—especially as he swept to victory with 41% of the vote. The election was a re-run: last December the country’s constitutional court annulled the initial attempt after another hard-right populist, Calin Georgescu, took first place, allegedly due to Russian interference. With Mr Georgescu barred from running, it has been clear for months that Mr Simion would come first; the question was which runner-up would face him in the election’s second round on May 18th.