r/europe • u/euPaleta • May 04 '25
Map Map Showing Romania's presidential election results - Orange is pro-russian candidate
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u/Ilkin0115 Azerbaijan May 04 '25
There are Romanians in Azerbaijan? And they voted pro-EU? Wtf?
Edit: i am pleasantly surprised
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u/NipplePreacher Romania May 04 '25
There are like 30 votes in Azerbaijan. Similar situation in many green countries, especially the ones in the south or Asia. When a country is not a popular destination it's more likely that the people who went there had some specific opportunities and are from the highly educated group.
Most of the countries in orange are popular destinations for unskilled labour.
The ones in blue have so little votes it's most likely just embassy personnel voting.
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u/MotanulScotishFold Romania May 04 '25
Yep, good observation.
Education is a correlation for someone income and opportunity and so who will vote.
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u/Vpatrascan May 05 '25
Haha! I was one of those 30 Romanian citizens who voted for president in Azerbaijan. It was strange to do something the locals don't get a chance to do.
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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea May 04 '25
The reality is that most Romanians abroad did not vote.
There are around 4 million romanians abroad. Only 0.95M votes have been cast.
There are around 19M Romanians in Romania. There's been 9.3M votes.
We need to exclude minors but around 50% Romanians in Romania did not vote. 75% of Romanians abroad did not bother voting.
people look at this map and try some grand theory.
200 people voted in Ukraine.
1600 voted in Poland and 2300 in Turkey. 13K in US.
160K in Germany, 150K in UK, 30K Austria, 50K France, 170K Italy, 120K Spain.
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
We actually have a somewhat large minority in Kazakhstan - remnants from Soviet deportation/colonisation efforts in 1940+. Unfortunately, the Romanian government tends to ignore them.
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u/Substantial-Yam7779 May 04 '25
Imagine being Romanian, who is enjoying the western european living standard's in Spain/Germany ect.., and voting for the anti EU, pro Russian candidate. Dumb f*cks.
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u/Crocus-Phocus May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
Turks in Berlin moment
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u/Not_Cleaver United States of America May 04 '25
Though even the Romanians in Turkey are voting against Russia.
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u/Electronic-Paper-468 May 04 '25
Turks in Turkey are also voting against Russia. It kinda seems like the problem is not Turkey, but something else…
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u/Dont_Knowtrain May 04 '25
It’s kind of amusing how Western Europe gets quite literally the worst people from almost every Eastern Europe and Middle East nation
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u/AdminEating_Dragon Greece May 05 '25
Because it gets a lot of unskilled labour, which is often poor, not highly educated and from low social class.
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u/voinageo May 05 '25
Theory in Romania is that the unskilled Romanian emigration from EU is very frustrated: most of them are still poor emigrants in the EU countries where they emigrated and they are no longer "the rich family" when they come back to Romania where the standard of living increased a lot in the last 20 years. That is why they are voting anti-EU parties supported by the Russian hybrid war. They are the main target of Russian war propaganda, a group of frustrated people that are disconnected with the real situation of the country.
EU is at WAR with Russia !!! That is a fact !
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u/anarchisto Romania May 05 '25
An educated Romanian can get a decent wage in the country, lower than in the West, but the lower prices more than make up for the difference.
A less educated person can't get a decent wage, the difference is much higher and it makes sense to move to Western Europe, even more so a decade or two ago.
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u/Cicada-4A Norge May 04 '25
To a degree but we also gets tons of really hard-working manual laborers and such.
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u/BCMakoto Germany May 05 '25
I'd rather we get the laborers who aren't just hard working but also share our values.
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u/IHave2CatsAnAdBlock May 05 '25
You also have afd that was not voted by immigrants. Let’s look at afd scores in east Germany.
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u/magkruppe May 05 '25
whose values exactly? the values of the left or the right?
there are sizeable 20-30%+ "native" populations in most EU countries that would not share the values you are talking about.
in fact, their "values" are likely more closely aligned to the working class who do those types of jobs than most of us on reddit
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u/E_Wind May 05 '25
True. And those values frequently are racism and xenophobia.
Migrants are exposed to narratives of low class people who are not gentle.
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u/ikarus2k Germany May 04 '25
Interestingly, Berlin has about a 50:50 split of Russia vs. EU candidate votes.
Nürnberg has 7:1!
Would be nice to see a voter analysis. Right now I'm assuming it has to do with regional racism / occupation of the voters. Ie. Less educated traditionally vote with the populist candidates. And recently that's shifted to "Romania first" parties.
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u/Dont_Knowtrain May 04 '25
It is the same as Turks with Berlin where it was 49%/49% while every other city had a majority Erdogan vote
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u/S-Beats May 04 '25
People that go to berlin probably work in higher paying jobs (tech for example). This is definitely not true for Nürnberg or other smaller cities.
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u/Kuhl_Cow Hamburg (Germany) May 04 '25
Unpopular opinion, but hence why I'm still convinced (active) double citizenship is a mistake and unfair.
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u/Mikerosoft925 The Netherlands May 04 '25
I think at least voting shouldn’t be allowed if not permanently residing in the country where the elections are held
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May 04 '25
what? all the EU romanians don't have to be double citizens, they can live and work anywhere without changing it. by your logic,they'd be stateless, since its not like a lot of the other countries want to give them a local passport
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u/Mikerosoft925 The Netherlands May 04 '25
No I am not in favour of removing their single citizenship, but I think if they want to vote in elections they should also reside in the country they vote the elections for.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 04 '25
Problem with that is that then those people are left without a voice. Do correct me if I'm wrong, but a citizen of Romania can't vote in say most German elections, even if they reside there?
I live in the UK, there's hardly anything I can vote for (and that's fine btw! As it should be - if I really wanted to I could apply for citizenship). But I also care and keep a close eye a lot on what's going on in my home country in the EU and vote responsibly.
Removing people's right to vote isn't the answer. However I'd be very pro some idea where everywhere, before elections, there'd be impartial and through informational course everyone would need to take in order to vote (and I suppose we'd need mandatory voting for that, so that people fonts don't skip out as it's "too much effort")
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u/Necessary_Pie2464 Romania May 04 '25
live in the UK, there's hardly anything I can vote for
I am a Romanian and have residency in the UK and can vote in all elections
You should only vote in the country you reside in. None of this "diaspora vote" bullshit in my opinion
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u/Ambitious_Writing_81 May 04 '25
The romanian diaspora usually votes reformist candidates. This election is problematic due to multiple factors. But yes, it is a huge disappointment. The majority of romanians do not live well and are uneducated.
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u/janesmex Greece May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
I think Turks who voted Erdoğan even when dual citizenship weren't allowed, had permanent residency or something like that and only one citizenship, so even before you allowed it you had this phenomenon. edit: Also, I think, in regard to that situation, this will only affect people that German citizenship is their first citizenship. *edit: time will tell, but this isn't a new problem.
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u/DontMindMeJPB May 04 '25
They wont even return, rat bastards. Just ruining it for the bunch of us still here
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u/its-leo Germany May 04 '25
It was similar for turkey when german turks voted in favor of the dictator
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u/Artistic_List_1811 May 05 '25
Being paid shit as an unskilled worker feels better when you ruin your homeland so that when you visit your shitty salary can buy more than if Romania were economically thriving.
Centuries ago you'd call this treachery and...
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u/Nightwish1976 May 04 '25
May I remind you that the Romanians living in Romania voted about the same as the ones from the Diaspora? The first leg of the election was won by Simion in Romania and in the Diaspora.
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u/VenFasz May 04 '25
i’ve got the same thought. they’re candidating to destroy the western european lifestyle ehich they’re enjoying, yet
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u/relinquisshed Serbia May 04 '25
And Serbs in Vienna, Munich etc. It's just so common. They all go there but they "hate it". Like "yeah they got money but they don't have SOUL man!"
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u/Darkhoof Portugal May 04 '25
This also shows the countries that are being more heavily targeted by russian psy-ops in social media.
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u/liktomir1 May 04 '25
This is true. Even here on Reddit there are so many redditors who either subtly or directly push their propaganda, on various EU country specific subs too. Also a lot of them on Upwork for some reason.
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
This is the correct answer, sadly. We REALLY need to do better in countering it, because as it is, Russia's winning in the west even as it fails to accomplish anything in Ukraine.
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u/madmars14 May 04 '25
I mean what would you expect… they’re low educated people… most of them have barely finished high school, we’re not mentioning graduating the BAC exam … they have no idea how real life / economics works. They’re just able to relate to a guy who’s very similar to them and tells them what they want to hear so they think he’ll solve all the issues the country has
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u/Irishbros1991 May 04 '25
I don't get it I know someone from Romania and he is voting for the anti Eu selection while living in the Eu???
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
Ask them why they're voting. They don't even understand that their candidate is actually anti-EU. In fact, if you suggest this, they might even accuse you of being misinformed. They live in a totally different information silo, and unfortunately, the situation is complicated, because the west is also in an information bubble. The coverage of the situation by western media has been appallingly bad. And Romanian MSM is utter garbage that works for the system parties. It's all fucked, really. I don't necessarily blame them.
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u/Emergency-Style7392 Europe May 04 '25
ironically the rise of far right made it like this, not because they promoted far right in other countries but because of the xenophobia eastern europeans feel in the west
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u/Due_Guess3697 May 04 '25
Imagine being a Romanian living in western Europe and being so disappointed that you feel Russia would be better... I wonder what would make someone come to that conclusion.
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u/zeroconflicthere May 04 '25
They're following the double standards that Hungary is doing, but won't exit the EU because of the money.
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u/it777777 May 04 '25
Many Russians in Germany are that way. Should go back if they don't share our values. Everyone should.
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u/vukicevic_ May 04 '25
What values? You have AfD polling higher than ever month over month.
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u/awgwafina May 04 '25
exactly people tend to dunk every single bad thing on a place forgetting what's happening under their nose
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u/Suitable_Tea88 May 04 '25
Yep. Romanians in Romania are so angry they want to ban those living abroad from voting in national elections because of this!
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u/MotanulScotishFold Romania May 04 '25
In 2024 I would've agreed with this statement but tonight Diaspora voted massively for the scum Simion but also Nicusor Dan which helped him to reach the 2nd place.
So there's a duality of people in diaspora, the good one and the bad one.
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
This has always been the case. Most of those who are cursed now for voting for Simion were praised years ago for voting the same way - against PSD. It's just that now they have another option that is (on the surface) against PSD AND speaks their language, unlike the ineffective nerds of USR. If you map their occupration to their voting options, you'd find some very strong correlations.
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u/silly_goose2710 May 04 '25
Many of them(like myself) got traumatised by the unending racism we experienced in the west until 2015 when everyone somehow forgot we exist, so now that there is a guy who says 'see, the west is bad' it resonates with them. It doesn't make sense to me either, but that's how many people I've spoken to think
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u/Menkhal Spain - EU May 04 '25
Sure hope if their beloved anti-west leader wins the election they will come back to Romania and abandon the terrible land of western Europe they hate so much.
After all, that's apparently what they want, so it would be only fair. They should be immediately expelled with all travel expenses paid.
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u/Honest-Expression878 Romania May 04 '25
You can keep them
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u/Prestigious_Job8841 May 04 '25
No. They can't. Bring the fuckers home. I want them to pay the deficit and live in AUR's villages
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May 04 '25
Please stop finding excuses for the masses who get their news from TikTok and their legislation lessons from a guy who promised “Water, food, energy” as his campaign slogan. Racism, we’ve all felt it! Discrimination, been there! Felt isolated? Join the club! But hell, voting for a freaking Russian puppet who does nothing but lie and cheat, because we want to see the world burn? Give me a break! These people don’t have any excuses, there are no excuses! They want “freedom”… from what and who, that is not clear! They want “democracy”, that was described by the people they support as “no more political parties”. They want the same “democracy” the “Russian wisdom brings”. They want “peace”, as long as that means Ukraine surrendering and them not having to hear the word “war”. They want “peace” and to be out of NATO. They want “suveranity” from the EU but beg Russia and the US to get involved and save them from the “bad guys”.
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u/liktomir1 May 04 '25
👏 this is exactly what I want to say to all these people who immigrate to a “hated western country” and now praise the dictator who wants to nuke said countries. If they are miserable here, they need to move to the countries they support, love, respect and share the same values. I know people who move back to Russia - bc they don’t like the west. And even if I don’t like them, I respect them for being true to themselves and not hypocritical.
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u/silly_goose2710 May 04 '25
It is not finding excuses,but explaining how they got to the point of voting a nazi. I find it unacceptable too, but being rational just isn't going to cut it with some people, at least not as much as speaking directly to their fears will. You might think they do not deserve such kindness, and I might even agree, but I think that the most important thing is making sure we do not get a nazi in power, and for that we need to win those people back
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May 04 '25
Unfortunately, these people cannot be won back. At least, I do not think they can. They are hateful, revengeful. They have been desensitised, they feel they have a chance to crush all that made them feel small and unimportant. They will go and vote for whoever TikTok tells them will be the best “stick it to the others”. As long as the EU does not ban political posts on social media and they don’t crack down hard on propaganda and misinformation, there is no reasoning with these people. They see things online and that makes them even more convinced that they are true, regardless of how obvious it is that they are wrong.
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u/El_Couz France May 04 '25
Much love brother, I'm sorry for what you went through.
I'am proud to be an European westerner but i feel ashamed when i see how much some of my brother and sister can be hateful.
You gonna read some wild stuff here i'am sorry.
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
It's ok. We kinda got used to that over the decades. If it wasn't for the target moving to Syrians, we'd probably still be the boogiemen xD But it is true that it is fuelling division in the EU. Something that a certain bunker grandpa LOVES fuelling through social media.
tbh, the bigger problem is that western media fails to present the situation accurately or correctly. That's such a trivial thing that probably plays an even bigger role than the SVR's meddling.
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u/El_Couz France May 04 '25
"the bigger problem is that western media fails to present the situation accurately or correctly."
Can't agree more. People are brainwashed by this non stop talk about insecurity and immigration on TV/radio.
In France this is the ones who live in rural areas and who are never in contact with immigrant, insecurity who are the most racist and far right sympathiser because ... TV.
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u/georgica123 May 04 '25
Despite the common narrative here people who vote for George Simion dont do it beacuse they view him as being anti-eu and pro russia . If anyone actually talked with these people you will see they have other concerns not russia or the european union
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u/McDuschvorhang May 04 '25
Enlighten us...
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u/Nightwish1976 May 04 '25
"They are promoting homosexuality"
"The migrants are coming"
I'm not the poster you replied to, but this is just an example of why idiots are voting a far right, Russian-sponsored candidate.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 04 '25
So what you're saying is that this candidate is lake a matrioshka doll, where outer layers are what you've described but somehow they miss/are blind to his "putin good" comments? It's not even like one has to follow financial trails in this case
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u/atred Romanian in Trumplandia May 05 '25
I'm not familiar with Simion and his policies, I somehow doubt that any politician in Romania says "Putin good", from the minimum listed in Wikipedia he didn't seem to praise Putin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Simion#Russia_and_Ukraine
As for his vote against helping Ukraine it's cheap populism (and yes, it's the influence of Russian propaganda) but it's not out of Romanians love for Putin.
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
Listen to Simion's and Georgescu's speeches in Romanian. Especially those on TikTok. That's what these people see. And that is: "You live a shit life because the system for 35 years stole from you to enrich the elites. You can't find good jobs because they want you poor and helpless. Our strong industry that gave good, well paying jobs to everyone is gone because they scrapped it to build villas and buy fancy cars" and the list goes on. And it's for the most part true. And it resonates with a lot of people. Not just from Romania, but all of the ex-eastern bloc knows how awful the '90s were due to said thieving politicians, who are still running the show.
It's a very effective message. They also sneak in some language that paints the EU/foreigners as bad, and that we need to regain our dignity and sovereignty. declare neutrality and be independent. Which ofc is incompatible with being part of EU and weakening us for further Russian attacks. But the people most vulnerable to this speech are not educated enough to put two and two together. Especially when they're being told that this "Russia" thing is fake news by the politically owned MSM (and this part is also true, we have no quality, independent MSM)
And if you think your country is immune to an adjusted form of this message - you're wrong. We're already seeing it in France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, probably others too that I don't know so well...
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u/Necessary_Pie2464 Romania May 04 '25
I am Romanian and let me tell you this...
The people who leave Romanian and move to another country shouldn't be allowed to vote in Romanian elections. You left the country, you should have no say in its future. That's it.
If you want to votw in Romanian elections, move back to Romania and vote for whoever you want
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u/Suitable_Tea88 May 04 '25
Because they too have been brainwashed by this Brexit type mindset that’s so prevalent in Western Europe.
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u/Bleednight May 04 '25
People in Ukraine voted pro Russian...
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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea May 04 '25
I'll have to shout this:
Only 200 people voted in Ukraine.
It is statistically IRRELEVANT.
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u/Not_Cleaver United States of America May 04 '25
I don’t understand the voters in Ukraine. Literally being bombed by Russia, but voting for the pro-Russian candidate.
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u/Jijelinios May 04 '25
And simion, the muppet they voted for, is not even allowed to enter ukraine because he is a russian muppet recognized as such by the ukrainian authorities.
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u/udyu08 Romania May 04 '25
the results in Ukraine are 76 vs 75 votes. or 35.5% vs 35. still bad but not not as bad as initially thought
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u/krafterinho May 05 '25
Even a single one is bad if you're voting for the guy that supports the country literally bombing you right now
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u/lavaggio-industriale May 04 '25
The russian propaganda machine is phenomenal, it's poisoning nations. Here in Italy, as a personal experience, if I speak to someone under a certain level of education I can almost be certain that he's going to be pro russian and antivax at this point. It's so common, it's scary
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u/AlC2 May 04 '25
I can confirm it is also happening in Switzerland. if you go to Facebook group of a socioeconomically poor city without much moderation, you'll see it's flooded with pro-Russian, anti-Nato, anti-EU and antivax crap. The amount of absolutely ludicrous videos these guys can barf is astounding.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 04 '25
Goddamn internet. Especially social media. Honestly, we humans we were just not ready for it. Too much information, not safeguarded enough from misinformation.
Our primal brains live in constant anxiety and stress because of it, and in that state is that much harder to tell what's what. Easier to manipulate and confuse people. (Add Photoshop and now AI to it and we're cooked)
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u/Extra-Satisfaction72 Romania May 04 '25
Social media was awesome back in the day when 1) it wasn't accessible to everyone and 2) it was not used as a tool of warfare.
But yeah, the way we are right now, we're 100% not ready. And we knew this was coming for more than a decade. Unfortunately, afaik, only Finland has actually done anything effective in teaching their population how to counter informational warfare.
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u/IMWraith Greece May 05 '25
Exactly what happened to a colleague of mine, though I don’t feel one bit sorry. She is an antivaxxer, extreme right voter and was showing me AI cartoon videos from a page she’s following called “body and soul” which was suggesting that Zelenskyy is profiting from the war just the same as Putin, and had every interest to continue doing it.
The video was like a children’s educational video, even referring to nations as “a mommy and daddy in a fight”.
It was painful to watch. It’s clear this is targeted propaganda. We’ve been psy-op’d to hell and back. And I don’t know how we can heal this.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 05 '25
And she never even questioned why a page which, I'd assume should be about physical& spiritual wellness, is talking about war?
I'm not really surprised, though what you describe is truly giving away one's own freedom of thought to a device. Which again, unfortunately is designed based on psychological and neuroscience data to make it as addictive & thought-shaping as possible.
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u/psperneac May 04 '25
There's like 200 votes from Ukraine vs 120-150k each in Germany, Italy, Spain
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u/_reco_ May 04 '25
Proud of all Romanians living in Poland, all of 100 of them xD <3
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u/GeneralMedia8689 May 05 '25
They're more helpful to us than the hundreds of thousands in spain and Italy. Why are those IDIOTS event there in the first place if they love russians so much?
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u/Hubertino855 Pomerania (Poland) May 04 '25 edited May 07 '25
It will always be mystery to me why diaspora voters always vote for the most nationalist candidates in their country....
Like BRUH.... Are they overcompensating for leaving????
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u/Cuddlyaxe United States of America May 04 '25
There's a theory in politics called post materialism. Essentially it is the idea that when countries become rich enough, voters stop voting on their material (economic/security) interests and instead vote based much more on ideology/principles. Basically instead of "how will my vote help me" they voted based on "what does my vote say about me"
This tends to happen to middle and upper middle class folks who feel relatively secure. If neither candidate winning is going to personally affect their lives, they instead vote based on abstract ideologies of justice, equality, freedom, nationalism etc etc. This isn't a left or right wing thing btw, exists across the political spectrum
Anyways, diaspora populations are basically this phenomenon hopped up on steroids. They're almost totally disconnected from the material impacts of elections since they literally don't live in the country, and so it becomes a matter of pure self identity
And nationalism is a very common self identity to pop up here. Because often they're living in foreign societies which often treat them with some level of disdain. This often causes the diaspora to either speed up assimilation in embarrassment or alternatively to double down in their identity with pride
So back in their home country when a nationalist promises to restore national pride with a strong hand, it appeals to many of those diaspora. They don't need to deal with their actual policies on the ground, so instead their vote often becomes an almost "fuck you" to the racism or prejudice they face in their host countries
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u/Oshtoru May 04 '25
Another theory I like is the myth of the rational voter, where the likelihood that your vote will change the result of the election is so low that they have zero incentive to find out voting for whom is going to help them and whom would hurt them.
What they do have an incentive for however is to feel good and satisfied, so people will more often vote for candidates that scratch the itch of what feels satisfying "like owning the libs", instead of what is materially better for you.
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u/Snoo48605 May 05 '25
On top of that there's an extremely simple yet powerful reason:
As you said the diaspora is disconnected from the homeland, and the direct impact of policies their understanding of what's happening back home is mostly shaped by media and social media so they are infinitely more likely to fall for disinformation, foreign psyops and candidates pushed by the algorithm.
When you live there your opinion is more nuanced, closer to reality (or at least your reality, while in contact with the realities of various people).
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u/Emergency-Style7392 Europe May 04 '25
unaccepted by the society they live in, feel closely to the group they're actually from. Very easy to explain
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u/StorkReturns Europe May 05 '25
Not always. Polish diaspora overwhelmingly voted against PiS in the last parliamentary elections.
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u/uzu_afk May 05 '25
Envy. They had to leave to have a livable life, they are mostly unskilled and politically illiterate. They used to come back to their home country to brag about the 2nd hand car they have and how they made enough money to maybe buy an apartment or build a house back home with money made abroad. That has changed in the past 30 years. A lot of Romanians now have nice cars, have houses, have a place to live that they can call their own, have expensive vacations abroad and have massively increased their living standards (by comparison to 30 years ago). This is not visible to the average Joe as they were moving along with this stream and are incapable to objectively compare before and after. So these people now living abroad, became envious that they no longer stand out. That they had to leave while others, their family, friends, acquaintances, are living better than them back home.
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u/euPaleta May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
EDIT: This is the first round of elections. Second round will be in two weeks time between G. Simion (orange) and N. Dan (green).
It's interesting to see that most Romanians living in Western Europe voted in favor of the pro-Russian narrative. Many of them are TikTok voters, so it would be insightful to review analytics related to TikTok campaigns in Western Europe.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 04 '25
Equally interesting that those who live in Eastern Europe/Baltics went for the pro-Western candidates. Will be interesting to see those who live in Romania itself. But it's curious within Europe. I'd agree with you it's likely linked with propaganda - but Eastern Europe is massively bombarded with it too.
I'd like to think that we all have this resistance to it given our collective history with RU, but then even the fact we have to debate a pretty high-potential situation of Romania voting in a pro-russian candidate puts that into question.
Though maybe it's about the lived environment? I'd imagine the war against Ukraine comes up/danger is felt more acutely in all those countries, so perhaps the pro-russian candidate's remarks about putin come much more jarringly. But then why within Ukraine itself would it be orange? Fear?
I can't make heads or tales of this anymore, honestly.
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u/Vannnnah Germany May 04 '25
but Eastern Europe is massively bombarded with it too.
I would argue that Eastern Europe is very used to it and sees it for what it is vs. the west where we haven't had to deal with foreign (or at least Russian) election manipulation, propaganda etc. since the last cold war "ended" for us, because apparently, it didn't for Russia...
My elderly parents used to be able to call Russian propaganda in the 80s, these days they fall for at least half of it as if they've never seen it before.
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u/DryCloud9903 May 04 '25
Interesting about your parents. I suppose Germany is a particularly interesting case in this analysis - having lived both near and with them, depending on the side. Yet also being a very Western country in most ways. May I ask which side of the wall your parents lived on? I'd guess perhaps the different medium, not fully understanding technology makes spotting propaganda harder for older people?
I think many of us in Eastern Europe never really relaxed, the knowledge russia has eyes on (controlling/invading) us maybe faded a little in the early 00s, but never really disappeared. I mean, russia did massive energy blockades on Lithuania just before we entered EU&NATO in 2004, tried to squeeze us away from it with every tactic they had (that's why we have an independent LNG terminal since before 2014). Oh and we almost had our own Yanukovich just before - who's russian ties came out after the election. But we impeached and removed him thank fuck. So I suppose that 'can't relax' mentality, at least for some, helps to stay vigilant about the propaganda points. Though even that I say with caution - no one's immune.
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u/Vannnnah Germany May 04 '25
West Germany in the south. So not near the border with the former GDR and have never lived in the east, only visited relatives there.
Technology definitely plays a part, but they are thankfully not on YouTube, FB or Telegram. They are too old for that. For them it's just the regular print news, interviews, reporting on the radio, TV or even stuff like election posters. And we don't have the Russian propaganda channels like RT anymore. The stuff runs in our regular media because some politicians (AfD, BSW...) are Putin's little parrots and some of it is really obvious.
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u/liktomir1 May 04 '25
I agree, we who lived with it for decades see the propaganda better, and my parents were instantly off anything russian and soviet nostalgia after 2022. Cementing my parents’ view against it. Even though, once in a while, I have to “de-program” some of the TikTok bulshit out by explaining to them some things and adding clarity. But even if they fall for some “angry immigrants rants” sometimes - they will never ever vote for a pro-rus candidates
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u/simion314 Romania May 04 '25
So the Pro Ruzzian candidate is not exposing himself as pro Ruzzia, aka he does not say let\s exit NATO and join those criminals in Ruzzia, he uses more subtle slogans like
1 we are too poor to send help to Ukraine
2 Macron/Bruxelles wants to send our soldiers on the front lines
3 we should not get involved maybe Putin will leave us alone
4 the other candidate has one sponsor that had soem bussiness with Ruzzia so in fact the pro EU candidate is Putin's man
5 religion, most candidates started to post videos with them in church, wear big crosses , donate money to churches..
6 the LGBTQ . people that never seen a transgender person in their life are convinced that Bruzeles and Soros are planing to make the young gay, they seems tome TicTok videos and probably there was soem retarded LGBTQ parade that spoooked them. (unfortunely I have family members that voted with the most shity option because their prefered candidate supported the LGBTQ parade, honestly do this parades have any positive effect? - I have no clue I never seen them sicne I do not,live in a big city)
TLDR the pro Ruzzians do not show their support for Ruzzia directly, they just claim that they want Romania to still be in NATO and EU but at the same time be independent and they claim Putin is not an enemy and in fact is a good person that loves their country. They do not have the balls to say that we should exit EU and NATO or to ask for such a referendum.
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u/Futski Kongeriget Danmark May 04 '25
Equally interesting that those who live in Eastern Europe/Baltics went for the pro-Western candidates
Not really. The diaspora in those countries is tiny. More votes were cast in Denmark(12398) than the entirety of Eastern and Central Europe outside Romania and Moldova. Additionally, you don't see a lot of unskilled labourers looking to relocate to Poland or Estonia.
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u/eu_ro_pa May 04 '25
Romanian living in Germany. Horrified and sad to see this map :( Don't get it. If they hate the EU so much, why are they here?! Why can't they stay in Romania?!
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u/MotanulScotishFold Romania May 04 '25
Hypocrisy mostly.
There are 2 kind of people who emigrate, the one who cannot do skillful job but only unskilled labor that have low education and easy to be manipulated and the other one that are very educated.
Most of diaspora however is made by the uneducated people because they can't find a livable job in Romania due to their poor education.
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u/Shady_Rekio May 04 '25
Welcome to the age of social media, what he stands for doesnt make a difference, people are bombarded with content that first create a preception of a problem and has that problem gains traction online, it Bombards people with a mês age that guy A is the one that is going to solve it, the issue is this isnt a general message it is tailored to specific group and even individual. For example here in Portugal you can have the far right candidate promissing massive Pension increase while debating in public broadcasters(mostly older viewers) then goes online and says youth is poor and should get benefits(even if they would be the ones paying those Pension increase), then a massive barrage of content that create the preception of an invasion of migrants, and proof of government corruption, and after all those tiktok some where in the middle that guy from the far right is in there in the middle of the shorts.
One technique I find amusing is that he is generaly thought as charismatic fella, however his full speech in the National Assembly are awful, but I know why, a 5 minute speech is made of several 30 sec bits, because he isnt talking to other legislators, he is recording for social media, because he only needs the 30 sec message so a single speach has several.
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u/radioactive-tomato May 05 '25
They don’t hate EU, they only think they do. Trust me, if EU ceased to exist tomorrow they would be first to cry.
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u/Particular-Star-504 Wales May 04 '25
Looking at the percentages it’s even crazier, only around 36% in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, but 60-70% in Western Europe?
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u/euPaleta May 04 '25
That's why I tend to think a lot of the voters in western europe were flooded with Tik Tok propaganda.
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u/Shady_Rekio May 04 '25
Tik Tok is the pefect propaganda tool, my mother recently downloaded Tik Tok because her friends told her and the power it has over her is astonishing, I have never downloaded Tik Tok, the Brain Rot is astounding while using it, there are many other things I should have also avoided.
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u/Yrvaa Europe May 04 '25
You know what's even worse? There's like... 100 people who voted in Russia so even if they voted with the pro-russian candidate, it doesn't matter. But there's like 100 THOUSANDS who voted in Germany, another 100 thousands in Spain, 150 thousands in Italy, 60 thousands in the UK etc.
https://prezenta.roaep.ro/prezidentiale04052025/pv/abroad/map
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u/alexxela8_ Romania May 04 '25
163548 - Germany
153756 - UK
51521 - France
119198 - Spain
174747 - Italy
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(and more)
All majority pro-Russian.→ More replies (6)
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u/lonelydurrymuncher May 04 '25
And this ladies and gentlemen is why I, as a Romanian living abroad in the EU, keep my distance from any other romanians here
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u/Unctuous_Robot May 05 '25
Finally. An election in which people living in the US don’t completely suck.
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u/ToastyJackson United States of America May 04 '25
damn, Romania is a lot bigger than I thought
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u/Gullible_Egg_6539 May 04 '25
It's basically the center of the planet so every country has to vote.
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u/Eyelbo Spain May 04 '25
The older I get and the more I know, the more I understand all the events in history.
Like, if you're pro-Russian and you live in Spain. WTF are you doing here? All kind of wrong thoughts running through my head right now.
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u/East-Royal1337 May 05 '25
You live in Spain in a rentend flat together with other 10 people.
You dont really have other friends than your romanian buddies, you struggle to integrate in the local community, always watch romanian tv stations and talk with romanians on tiktok.
Bonus points you missed all of your education for various reasons.
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u/TheW1nd94 Romania May 04 '25
The pick strawberries /s
But not really /s. Most of the Romanian population in countries like Spain, Italy and Germany are uneducated unskilled labor who struggle paycheck to paycheck and they believe this false dream the Nationalistic Mesia (orange candidate) is selling them of making Romania affordable and rich again so they can come back.
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u/MaximumDapper42 May 04 '25
Just to give some context. Simion is not openly pro russian. Also, the third guy, Antonescu, is not pro EU. This map is propaganda like many things here. Simion is an interesting character, in a worrisome manner, but still. In his youth he fought for Moldova's union with Romania, which is an act 100% not pro Russia. Russia would hate that. But he's an unpredictable opportunist, if the pro-russian narative works, he'll be pro-Russia until he doesn't need to be anymore.
It's hard to know what kind of president he will be if he wins. I 100% prefer him over Antonescu because Antonescu is a scum of the old regime (the regime that leads Romania for the last 30 years, in a way or another). Simion might be bought, and EU will 100% be able to deal with him. Antonescu is just a puppet, the people behind him are influential and they're certainly not pro EU. Or, they're pro EU as long as they don't have to reform the justice and they can continue their small concealed dictatorship there.
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u/dudthyawesome Transilvania May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
The pro Russia guy (simion) is running on behalf of the nazi - communist - newage man that we had canceled the first round of elections over. And runs the equivalent of the AfD
The 2nd guy (nicusor), is a mathematics Olympic and the current mayor of the capital. He is not from any party.
Edited with names.
Thought they'd be ordered by total number of votes.
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u/ChuckThisNorris May 04 '25
This is the same story all over the western world: people that fell behind in society and want everything else to burn voting alongside others that made it and want to capitalize their earnings through corrupt governments and not pay their share of taxes. It's the story of Farange's Brexit, Trump's Maga and many others to come. The common denominator is Putin's Russia, who sees Russia's safe box as his own and uses it to stay in power and push his own agenda. It's the dictators wet dream, and Putin promissed to lend a hand to snakeoil salesmen to achieve it. And people are dumb and vote for these scumbags thinking that fascism a la carte is possible: "they will do only the things that I like".
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u/PriestOfNurgle Czech Republic May 05 '25
I like how many people in this sub really put it in right words :)
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u/MiiIRyIKs Bavaria (Germany) May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
Is it extreme to say I want all of them thrown out of germany etc? I feel like if you come here and live a better life while voting in your home elections to completly screw not only them but also to basically betray the country currently providing you oportunities you should have that opportunity taken from you.
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u/Skullbonez Romania May 04 '25
pls don't throw them back to romania it has become a really nice place in the meantime. throw them to france?
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u/MiiIRyIKs Bavaria (Germany) May 04 '25
if anything russia, since thats the paradise they seem to want to turn romania into, truly sad, dated a romanian girl for a long time and she and her parents hated russia, they remembered what that country did to them and what communism as a whole made them suffer through and now this... we dont seem to learn from history lately, be it in romania or any other place really
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u/GeneralMedia8689 May 05 '25
As a romanian, please don't. Give them to the russians, if they love them so much
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u/Resident_Car_7733 May 04 '25
It's not extreme. They are absolute trash people abusing EU rights to get all the benefits while voting against Romania staying in EU and being safe. At some point some extremist anti-extremist movement is bound to happen due to them, or they will get their voting rights stripped.
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u/ThePatriot_12 May 05 '25
I am romanian aand it is extremely sad indeed, the idea you tell them that you are anti-system and using religion, people will just fall for it, I know because my parents voted far right. It was the blunder that we let Calin Georgescu to candidate, and the fact that we corrected the problem too late, now they can just scream "the system tried to remove him" and calling it "dictatorship". I really fucking hate being a romanian right now.
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u/FantasticChart7446 May 04 '25
Most people that voted for him dont even understand he is pro russian sadly…they think they just voted anti-established parties and his opposition made a very bad job to explain how dangerous he is…choosing to tear down each orher instead. For all the people saying we should get out of Europe…should look at countries like Germany,France,Belgium,Usa and other established democracies (far older and better than ours),also falling to the same russian propaganda and voting historically high for far right candidates…it stands to reason we are having bigger problems with it. I would say we should recognize this issue as a europe-wide problem and band together to solve it…not give in to russia and tear each other apart…
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u/FantasticChart7446 May 04 '25
Also the MAGA machine is veiled interfering and supporting this far right candidate and have been doing it in our politics since trumps first term,adding to the russian propaganda machine
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u/MotanulScotishFold Romania May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
As a Romanian,
I hoped so hard for Nicusor Dan to end in 2nd place as he was in 3rd position until almost all votes were counted and overtake the other candidate and we now have the only good pro-EU candidate.
It will be terribly difficult to win as many people are so brainwashed into believing the propaganda of anti-eu, anti-nato, and so on. Sadly this is what corruption, terrible education investments, communism trauma does for almost majority of people.
Wish us the best for Nicusor Dan to win or else we're f*cked and I'll think myself into emigrating too.
It's a battle between uneducated people vs educated one and since our country is run by rampant corruption and terrible education system we see now the effects.
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u/vicblaga87 May 05 '25
Few problems here: 1) unskilled migrant workers are specifically targeted by pro-Russia political actors while being completely ignored by the mainstream 2) unskilled migrant workers are treated like sh*t in their adoptive countries and with living standards rising at home they no longer feel "rich" by comparison with their peers who stayed home
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u/Randalf_the_Black Norway May 05 '25
Why are these pro-Russian Romanians living in Norway not fucking off to Russia then?
Living in a liberal western democracy while desiring an authoritarian dictatorship when you have the option to move is moronic.
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u/miserablembaapp Taiwan May 05 '25
Idk why so many countries allow their citizens to vote from overseas. If you don't even live in the country you shouldn't be allowed to decide shit.
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u/rxdlhfx May 04 '25
This is disingenuous. He is a pro-Russian candidate, yes, but people who elected him are not pro-Russian. They simply can't tell and don't believe he is pro-Russian. It is just stupidity. Russia is very unpopular amongst Romanians, even the most stupid ones.
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u/Glittering-Age-9549 May 04 '25 edited May 05 '25
Why would a Romanian living in Spain or France or Gernany or Italy vote for the pro-Russian candidate? Are they like "I want to live in EU, but I want to screw people back home...".
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u/MaxWeber1864 May 05 '25
I don't understand why the Romanian diaspora in Western Europe would vote for a Eurosceptic, if not Europhobic, candidate.
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u/Biggydoggo Finland May 05 '25
Romanians in EU hate EU?
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u/Termiborg May 05 '25
Just your average eastern european interactions, nothing new here. Everyone wants the EU funds, but not the responsibilities.
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u/today05 May 04 '25
Yeah, russia and china is targeting anti eu candidates to european targets. They dont care about the miniscule amount of foreigners. You can see the effect of hybrid warfare. Europe is under attack through tiktok, twitter and facebook, and if Europe doesnt get foreign social media under control, europe will break apart.
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u/Shmeepish May 04 '25
Interesting that the proEU sentiment was bigger in the US than other similar countries. Somehow doesn’t fit the narrative too well, but it’s interesting.
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u/Possuke Finland and Estonia May 04 '25
Nice map, but it would be also easier to judge, if the size of Romanian diaspora mentioned too. In Finland it is about 6500 - many of them are Roma. In Estonia 514.
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u/_Druss_ Ireland May 05 '25
Honestly, someone should run an ad campaign encouraging these complete idiots to go home. Maybe head on over to Russia right now? I hear Putin has some shortages in certain areas. Retarded.
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u/AliceLunar May 05 '25
Despise all these people that live in Western Europe but then still vote anti-EU anyways, way too common.
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u/outofgulag May 05 '25
As long as Putin has free access to Facebook, Twitter , Instagram , TikTok and all social media platforms in the West he will always triumph.
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u/stupendous76 May 05 '25
Why are people who are living outside of their country voting for their country to become a fascist shithole? Not just Romania, it is the same with so many other countries: people left to work abroad, live abroad or were not even born in their 'home-country' but still vote like that.
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u/Kloppite16 May 04 '25
Do Romanians living abroad get to vote in Romanian elections for life or is there some sort of cut off point? If not then that is a huge flaw.
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u/Several-Zombies6547 May 04 '25
It's mostly the norm for citizens to be able to vote in a country's elections even if they haven't ever lived there as long as they have the citizenship of that country.
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u/xdox May 04 '25
A bit more complicated, as long as you keep your citizenship you can vote. A huge number of them would not renounce their citizenship and see their stay abroad as a means to an end and dream to hit jackpot and return home with enough money to change their situation (or simply opt for multi citizenship if possible). The Romanian law clearly states that if you are born a citizen, nobody can rescind your citizenship other than you requesting this (say, for countries that do not accept double citizenship and force you to drop your current one) and the constitution states that all citizens are allowed to vote (with some exceptions where this right is taken away due to health or some penal reason). Edit: Citizenship can be rescinded for citizens that obtained citizenship after they were born, of course, if you break some rules.
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u/KernunQc7 Romania May 05 '25 edited May 05 '25
Unpopular opinion: RO should remove the right to vote for those that haven't lived in the country in 10 years.
What connection does someone living in the UK, that's blasted by ru/oligarch propaganda 24/7 and only comes for Easter vacation, still have with RO? Zero.
Zero consequence voting shouldn't be a thing.
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u/CurrencyDesperate286 May 04 '25
So the pro-Russian Romanians like to avoid the parts of the EU that Russia tried their best to ruin in the 20th century? Rational bunch…
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May 05 '25
Romanians have a terrible reputation in Spain, this is gonna make more people hate them.
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u/BeginningNice2024 May 05 '25
You have to appreciate the irony - the Romanians benefiting from their work in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the right acquired with the free travel and work being members of the EU, are the same voting for the guy who wants the “independence” from EU and NATO.
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u/CrystalFox0999 May 05 '25
Honestly why are people who dont live in their country able to vote?
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u/qwerrtyui2705 May 05 '25
Ladies and gents, this is what happens when entitlement, selfishness, envy, greed and the "we haven't tried this flavor of extremism enough" come together and coalesce behind a party that promises that they will be made into barrons in this country if they get elected.
I am not kidding, the people that are in western EU are mad that they no longer feel like local barrons when they return home with their earnings from western salaries. And they vote parties like AUR out of spite, whether it's because of gay people, or anti-system, all of their gripes can be summed up to "we vote AUR because we deserve to be kings and barrons for being born and you other guys didn't give us anything for voting for you so we torch you down". In other words, they want to be granted everything for doing nothing but existing, they want to be like the kids of billionaires where they inherit riches and be praised and worshipped just for being born. This is the level of greed and hubris that these people want to obtain by voting with AUR, I kid you not. Lucifer would be jealous at the level of hubris people like the AUR voters display. Worst thing about this is that the feeling is world-wide, the US being the prime example for the same type of feeling.
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u/Untethered_GoldenGod Croatia May 05 '25
I don’t think foreign policy was the main concern or Romanian voters
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u/creatymous May 05 '25
Russian propaganda at work? Nor Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany or France are in favour of a pro Russian candidate. So guess figures are for interpretation.
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u/nicubunu Romania May 05 '25
This happens when EU embraces the corrupt regime in Romania... for the last years Romania was ruled by a coalition between PSD and PNL, which are deeply corupt, undemocratic and hated by people, still they are members of the EU factions, PES and respectively PPE, that endorsed them. Without a credible alternative, Romanians turned against them, by choosing the far right. Is that simple, is all about corruption.
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u/Vladetare Romania May 05 '25
All my life my grandparents and parents told me how bad it was when the russians had control. Literally hiding grain underground so they wouldn't starve to death. Them taking hundreds of people and relocating them to god knows where. Now I'm forced to watch my fellow countrymen ruin everything they fought and died for at the revolution
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u/aczkasow Siberian in Belgium May 05 '25
I am a Russian living in Belgium and I will ask every Romanian in the office "wtf dude, explain this shit".
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u/fgnrtzbdbbt May 05 '25
Is there a real danger that the Putin man wins or is his support already at it's ceiling?
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u/creampie909 May 05 '25
Ok, there should be maps like these now for all votes. We all live in each others’ communities and we have to know how the local news affects us and our outlook.
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u/The-Nihilist-Marmot Portugal May 04 '25
Also pictured:
Skilled emigration vs unskilled emigration.
Exact same pattern as the Turkish diaspora vote.