The struggle between liberal-globalists and populist-nationalists in Romania ended in the former's favor after Sunday's presidential run-off election, which was preceded by the authorities controversially annulling the first round in early December on the false pretext that the frontrunner was Russian-backed. Calin Georgescu was ultimately barred from running again and instead appointed his ally George Simion in his place, who came out on top in early May's first-round re-do, only to lose the second round.

Simion alleged that the Moldovan government was rallying the diaspora there against him and also claimed that other friendlier diasporas' polling stations didn't have enough ballots. Traditional fraud like ballot-stuffing was also suspected by some. 

Meanwhile, Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed that he rejected the French intelligence chief's request to ban conservative Romanian accounts, thus showing the international stakes in this election. 

A few words will now be shared about the geostrategic context.

It was assessed before December's now-annulled first round that "The Outcome Of Romania's Presidential Election Could Spoil The US' Potential Escalation Plans" of using Romania as a launchpad for any conventional European intervention in Ukraine.

France, the country that's most loudly called for the aforesaid scenario, has a military base in Romania and signed a defense pact with neighboring Moldova last year. This positions France to swiftly make a move on nearby Odessa if the decision is ever made.

The only way to prevent that would be for populist-nationalists to come to power and either kick out French troops or ensure that measures are in place to stop them from unilaterally using Romanian soil for conventional military operations in Ukraine. Likewise, the only way to retain the viability of this scenario is to keep populist-nationalists out of power, ergo the alleged fraud against Simion. 

The significance of Sunday's election was therefore that it keeps this possibility open even if it's never used.

If there's any silver lining to their loss, populist-nationalists could take partial consolation in the fact that they unprecedentedly galvanized their supporters during the election, and this mobilization of civil society could remain in place to expose the liberal-globalists' corruption and organize peaceful protests. They could also attempt to raise maximum awareness of the abovementioned scenario of France using Romania as a launchpad for conventionally intervening in Ukraine with all that could dangerously entail.