But DA's success arguably came at the expense of the other pro-Russian parties, especially Dodon's "Blocul Patriotic" and Ceban's "Alternativa".

One unexpected bright spot for Russian manipulation tactics was the ability of "Democrația Acasă" to get into parliament with 5.6%. DA was endorsed by Romanian ultranationalist leader, George Simion, and its leader, Vasile Costiuc, ran on the AUR list in last year's Romanian parliamentary elections.

And, then, of course, this genius feels the need to add his brilliant political analysis.
www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

Also, while this is from an online pre-electoral survey (of 1500 respondents), it seems to have captured the vote intentions quite well: below are my survey estimates (using demographic weights) vs. the official results in Romania (without the diaspora)

What is interesting is that SOS and POT voters supported Simion in lower proportions than AUR voters – so the “sovereignist” (nationalist) bloc is not very homogeneous.

Forming a functional government won't be easy, and tackling the urgent reforms ahead will be even harder. But, unless they step up, today's election may have just postponed the reckoning.

the fact that a candidate as extreme and as flawed as Simion got over 46% of the vote is alarming. Let's hope Romania's political class heeds this wake-up call.

And then there is the question of the diaspora, where turnout has also increased significantly.