France, May 22 -- Romania's new president Nicusor Dan is stepping into office amid deep political and social divisions, as fallout from Sunday's run-off election exposes the scale of public frustration and mistrust. Economic pressures are mounting, and the far right is already regrouping.
Dan, a pro-European centrist, defeated far-right leader George Simion in Sunday's run-off vote. The result was clear-cut - but the campaign exposed how fractured Romania has become.
"We're relieved, because we dodged the bullet," says Claudiu Nasui, an MP for the Save Romania Union party. "A Simion presidency would have been potentially disastrous for Romania."
But, he warns, now is the time to look ahead.
"Romania has a huge deficit problem, huge econ...