Romania Bucks Nationalist Wave With Election Shock
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When Romanians picked an ethnic German leader for the first time in 133 years, they did more than shock the frontrunner, Prime Minister Victor Ponta. They ran counter to a Europe-wide trend of rising nationalism.
In 1881, the choice was Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the first German king of Romania. On Nov. 16, voters picked Klaus Iohannis as their new president, giving the mayor of the Transylvanian city of Sibiu a surprise victory over Ponta. The leader of the opposition Liberal Party, who is having his first official meeting since being elected with descendants of the Carol royal family today, erased a 10-point deficit in the first round two weeks earlier.