Romanian centrist Nicusor Dan may have defied the odds to win the presidency, but now he faces an even more daunting task: forming a government that can implement years of painful austerity - and revenue-raising measures - to tame Europe's widest fiscal deficit.

There was a wave of euphoria and relief across Europe following the election of pro-European liberal Nicusor Dan as Romania’s new president. Moldovan President Maia Sandu echoed the sentiment: “Congratulations,

Nationalism remains the defining matter of European politics as these elections have presented referendums on the populist movements gaining traction in the Old World.

As of midnight on May 18th Romania’s election authorities reported he had taken 54% of the vote to Mr Simion’s 46%. The turnout was a record for a Romanian presidential election. The country’s enormous diaspora,

The two candidates in Romania’s presidential election runoff are neck and neck, early preliminary electoral data shows, in a high-stakes vote between a hard-right nationalist and a pro-European Union centrist that could determine the geopolitical direction of the NATO member country.