The Last Moderate: Can Nicușor Dan Outrun Collapse?

Romania needs a major reform in a system built to resist it

2 July 2025

The headlines declared victory. The West breathed a sigh of relief. But inside Romania, the reality is more complex. Nicușor Dan faces a fragile coalition, economic crisis and a state apparatus unwilling to change. If his presidency fails to deliver, the next populist wave could be unstoppable – and fatal for Romanian democracy.

Shortly after winning the presidency of Romania following nerve-wracking elections, Nicușor Dan is hailed as the man who saved the country from Russian influence and far-right extremism. But beyond external praise and domestic hopes lies a harsher truth: he has only won the first battle.

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The war to preserve Romania’s democracy is just beginning. The ground is mined with political instability, economic vulnerability, a divided society and increasingly sophisticated hybrid threats.

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Oana Popescu-Zamfir

Oana Popescu-Zamfir is a former State Secretary for EU Affairs and currently director of GlobalFocus Center, a Bucharest-based independent foreign policy think-tank. She is also affiliated to ECFR, Carnegie Europe and an IWM/ Erste Stiftung Europe's Futures Fellow.

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