George Simion

George Nicolae Simion (born 21 September 1986) is a Romanian right-wing politician and civic activist. He is the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a Romanian political party that gained prominence after its unexpectedly strong showing in the 2020 Romanian legislative election. Simion studied at the Gheorghe Lazăr National College, the University of Bucharest and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, graduating from the latter with a master's degree in history. After his studies, he began campaigning for the unification of Moldova and Romania, and has since created and organized notable associations and events for this purpose, such as Action 2012, the Alliance for the Centenary and the Centenary March, having also participated in several protests and demonstrations supporting Moldovans and their rights. As a result, he has been prohibited from entering Moldova on several occasions in the past, and he is currently barred from entering the country. 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, of which Simion is president, was founded on 19 September 2019. While the party's stated goal is the unification of the Romanian ethnicity, it has been accused of having a far-right orientation. The AUR garnered national and international attention after its unexpectedly high vote share in the 2020 Romanian legislative 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 .