George Simion
George-Nicolae Simion is a Romanian far-right politician and civic activist. He is the founder and chairman of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, the second largest party in both houses of parliament since 2024. He was a candidate in the 2025 Romanian presidential election.
Simion completed his high school studies at the Gheorghe Lazăr National College, before studying business administration at the University of Bucharest and then graduating from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University with a master's degree in history. Following his studies, he began campaigning for the unification of Moldova and Romania, and has since set up notable associations and events for this purpose, such as Action 2012, the Alliance for the Centenary and the Centenary March. As a result of his agitation campaigns, he has been prohibited from entering Moldova on several occasions in the past, and he is currently barred from entering the country as a persona non grata.
In 2019, Simion began to participate in politics, running as an independent candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania, in which he obtained 117,141 votes. After this, the AUR party was founded on 19 September 2019. The AUR garnered national and international attention after its unexpectedly high vote share in the 2020 Romanian parliamentary election.
Simion has been involved in several controversies, notably AUR's support for two former military officers who had allegedly repressed revolutionaries in the 1989 Romanian Revolution entering the Romanian Parliament or his participation in the.
Simion ran as the AUR candidate in the May 2025 Romanian presidential election, winning the first round, but ultimately losing the runoff to Nicușor Dan.
Early life and education
George-Nicolae Simion was born on 21 September 1986 in Focșani, the capital of Vrancea County, in the Socialist Republic of Romania. He is the second of two children born to Constantin Simion from Ialomița and his wife from Vrancea, the other being his elder sister Elena. At an early age, the family moved to the Romanian capital Bucharest, where his parents, both economists, had met when studying at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Romanian Development Bank.Constantin suffered from alcoholism and was involved in numerous police confrontations. Simion was thus largely raised in the care of his mother. In 1995, at the age of nine, Simion attended the opening of Romania's first McDonald's restaurant, an event he later reflected upon as among the formative ones in his perceptions of capitalism's influence on post-Communist Romanian society.
He completed his secondary education at Gheorghe Lazăr National College in Bucharest, graduating in 2005. He then studied at the Faculty of Business and Administration at the University of Bucharest, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 2008. In 2010, he completed a master's degree in history at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, located in the historical region of Moldavia, with "the crimes of communism" as his research topic. During his academic years, Simion actively participated in student organisations that promoted Romanian history and cultural heritage.
Civil activism (2004–2019)
His first public involvement in civic activism took place in 2004, when he held a banner reading "Heroes never die!" in Timișoara during the 15th commemoration of the Romanian Revolution, that as a part of the revolutions of 1989 ended 42 years of Communist rule in Romania, 24 of which under Nicolae Ceaușescu. Two years later, he led a protest in Bucharest in support of Moldovan students from the Gheorghe Asachi Romanian-French High School of Chișinău. In his youth, Simion and several peers painted graffiti reading "Bessarabia is Romania" at major traffic junctions across the country. Described by Adevărul in 2025 as his first notable protest, on 14 October 2008, Simion was invited to the Romanian Parliament by UDMR senator Péter Eckstein-Kovács. During this visit, he engaged in a verbal confrontation with senator Șerban Nicolae, telling him:Simion gained further public attention in 2009 when on 3 March, the birthday of former president Ion Iliescu, he lit candles in front of Iliescu's home in memory of the casualties of the Revolution and the June 1990 Mineriad. Simion referred to Illiescu as "the criminal of 1989" and was eventually held in custody of the police. In April 2019, Iliescu was charged with crimes against humanity for actions during those events, with the case unresolved as of 2025. On 17 April 2011, Simion founded Action 2012, a coalition of NGOs and civic associations advocating for the unification of Moldova and Romania. In 2012, he organised a protest in Moldova's second-largest city Bălți under the banner "Bălți feels Romanian". Action 2012 participated in the 2015–2016 protests in Moldova sparked by the disappearance of $1 billion from the Moldovan banks in 2014. In May 2015, the Moldovan Migration and Asylum Bureau ruled Simion undesirable in the Republic of Moldova and was consequently expelled, being classified by the Intelligence and Security Service as "a potential threat to the stability of the country".In 2017, Simion criticised the Romanian state for not preparing enough events to celebrate the centenary of the Great Union as other countries like Poland had done. Therefore, he founded the Alliance for the Centenary and announced several events for 2018, including a march from Alba Iulia in Romania to Chișinău, the capital of Moldova.
The Centenary March took place from 1 July to 1 September 2018, covering approximately 1,300 kilometres across eleven stages. Organised by Simion, the march aimed to highlight significant sites related to World War I and the Great Union of Romania. The march began on 1 July in Alba Iulia, in front of the Coronation Cathedral, where Ferdinand I was proclaimed king. It concluded on 1 September in Chișinău, Moldova. One of its primary objectives was to promote the unification of Moldova with Romania, with participants striving to gather one million signatures for a referendum on the issue.
The Moldovan authorities initially prevented the participants from crossing the border, but eventually allowed them to enter. The march culminated in a large gathering in Chișinău, where thousands welcomed the participants at the Great National Assembly Square for a final protest. However, Simion was unable to attend the final stage in Moldova, as he had issued a travel ban on 28 August.
Entry bans
Simion's activism caused outrage from Moldovan authorities, leading to multiple expulsions and entry bans. His first expulsion occurred in March 2009 during a protest marking the 91st anniversary of the union of Bessarabia with Romania. Simion and fellow organiser Eugen Rusu were arrested for alleged violation of public order; Simion received a fine, while Rusu was held in administrative detention. The incident was followed by a broader restriction on Romanian citizens entering Moldova, prompting Romania's foreign ministry to request explanation. In December 2014, he was briefly denied entry again, although the restriction was lifted within hours.On 14 May 2015, Simion was declared persona non grata and barred for five years from the country on grounds of "endangering national security". After diplomatic pressure from Romanian authorities, the sanction was rescinded in September of the year. Simion was briefly banned again for one day in February 2016. On 28 August 2018, during the Centenary March, Simion was prohibited for thirty days for allegedly displaying "aggressive and inappropriate behaviour" at the Moldova–Romania border. A final five-year ban was issued on 1 October 2018, during which Simion claimed he was arrested and assaulted, sharing photos of his injuries and the ban document online. Moldovan police denied the accusations, stating that the procedure had been peaceful. The current ban is set to expire in 2028 if not changed.
Early political career (2019–2024)
2019 European Parliament election
Simion began his political career on 12 January 2019, announcing his independent candidacy for the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania. In How I met them, published that same month, he reflected on his decision to enter politics, recalling the government's response to the 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire as particularly pivotal:On his choice to run as an independent, Simion expressed scepticism towards established political parties, concluding that the European Parliament election was the only election in which an independent was likely to win a seat due to the lower electoral threshold. Having already been an activist for the unification of Moldova and Romania, Simion had as his main objective making this project a European one. His campaign slogan was România Mare în Europa, referring to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved in 1918 after the Great Union.
In addition to this, he promoted an "anti-party" message, arguing that only an Independent candidate and not the different partisan interests could truly represent the interests of the Romanians. Simion declared he would fight for the rights of the Romanian minorities, such as those in Serbia or Ukraine, as well as the protection of the rights of Romanian diaspora members working in the European Union. He also expressed his intention to halt the country's illegal deforestation and start the construction of motorways better connecting Romania and Moldova.
Simion also promised to bring at least one child from every Romanian locality to the city of Brussels to teach them about the workings of the EU and to donate three-quarters of his salary as a Member of the European Parliament to projects in Romania or Moldova. In the election on 26 May, Simion got 117,141 votes, equivalent to 1.3 per cent of the votes in the election, failing to acquire a European Parliament seat.