Bucharest, Romania
Surely it’s only a matter of time before someone writes Children of the Deal: a portrait gallery of populists, showmen and media-savvy impresarios moulded in Donald Trump’s image. When that book appears, George Simion may well warrant the opening chapter.
In the basement of a Lebanese restaurant in central Bucharest, he holds court, poised to become Romania’s next president. ‘This is Romanian,’ he says, waving a hand over the mezze. ‘Like the Gulf of America… I’ll have an executive order to declare it Romanian.’
The room laughed. So did Simion. He was joking. Probably.
Simion is not, by any conventional measure, a traditional politician. A former football ultra and church-going Orthodox Christian, he is now the leader of Romania’s nationalist opposition.
Having just won the first round of Romania’s presidential election, he was suddenly the bookies’ favourite.
Simion lounges like a man who’s already measured the curtains at Cotroceni.
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