George Simion

George Nicolae Simion (born 21 September 1986) is a Romanian right-wing politician and civic activist.

George Nicolae Simion was born in Focșani, Romania, on 21 September 1986.

He graduated from the Gheorghe Lazăr National College of Bucharest.

After this, Simion studied in the University of Bucharest, at the Faculty of Business and Administration, and later studied at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, where he obtained a master's degree in history after having as research topic "the crimes of communism".

Currently, Simion lives modestly in a small studio apartment in Bucharest and is married with Ilinca Munteanu since 27 August 2022.

He allegedly donates 90% of his salary to civic causes, related to Romania or Romanians, month by month.

He has written two books.

Simion has been involved in several controversies, notably AUR's support for two former military officers who had allegedly repressed revolutionaries in the 1989 Romanian Revolution entering the Romanian Parliament or his participation in the 2019 disputes regarding the military cemetery in Valea Uzului.

In 2004, Simion exhibited the message Eroii nu mor niciodată ("Heroes never die") in Timișoara on the 15th anniversary of the Romanian Revolution.

Two years later, he organized a protest in Bucharest in favor of Moldovan students of the Gheorghe Asachi Romanian-French High School of Chișinău.

The first time that this happened was in March 2009, while a protest commemorating the 91st anniversary of the union of Bessarabia with Romania was taking place.

Simion, along with Eugen Rusu, one of the main organizers of the event, were arrested for "violating public order".

Rusu was placed under administrative detention and Simion was fined and released.

This was followed by the prohibition of dozens of Romanian citizens of entering Moldova.

For all of this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania asked for explanations.

In 2011, he established Action 2012 (Acțiunea 2012 in Romanian), a coalition of NGOs and civic associations advocating for the unification of Moldova and Romania.

After his studies, he began campaigning for the unification of Moldova and Romania, and has since created and organized notable associations and events for this purpose, such as Action 2012, the Alliance for the Centenary and the Centenary March, having also participated in several protests and demonstrations supporting Moldovans and their rights.

As a result, he has been prohibited from entering Moldova on several occasions in the past, and he is currently barred from entering the country.

Action 2012 participated in the 2015–2016 protests in Moldova.

In 2012, he organized the protest in Bălți, Moldova, Bălți simte românește ("Bălți feels Romanian").

In 2014, Simion organized a protest in favor of the Romanian Bessarabians after they were insulted by a Romanian television producer.

The second time Simion was banned from entering Moldova was on 16 December 2014.

This was supposed to be lifted on 20 December, but he was allowed to enter Moldova a few hours later through Sculeni.

On 14 May 2015, Simion was banned for the third time from entering Moldova for a period of 5 years for "endangering national security" through his events, becoming a persona non grata.

The first of them is Blocați în labirint ("Locked in [the] maze"), in which he talks about the timeline of the Republic of Moldova from its independence until 2017 (the year in which the book was published).

In 2017, Simion criticized that the Romanian state was not preparing enough events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Great Union as other countries like Poland had done.

Therefore, he founded the Alliance for the Centenary and announced that many events had been prepared for 2018, including a march from Alba Iulia (Romania) to Chișinău (Moldova).

This march materialized in 2018 as the Centenary March.

Organized by George Simion, it was divided into eleven stages and covered about 1300 km. It was designed in a way that important places for World War I and Great Union of Romania would be visited.

The march started on 1 July in Alba Iulia in front of the Coronation Cathedral, where Ferdinand I was proclaimed King of Greater Romania.

The march ended as planned on 1 September on Chișinău, where participants were welcomed by thousands of enthusiasts and where they made one final demonstration at the Great National Assembly Square of the city.

However, Simion was unable to participate in the final stage of the march in Moldova as he was banned from entering the country earlier on 28 August.

Simion's unionist activities and events have provoked discontent from the Moldovan authorities, which have expelled him on several occasions.

In 2019, Simion began to participate in politics, running as an independent candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania, in which he obtained 117,141 votes.

After this, the AUR party, of which Simion is president, was founded on 19 September 2019.

While the party's stated goal is the unification of the Romanian ethnicity, it has been accused of having a far-right orientation.

In 2019, he published his second book, Cum i-am cunoscut ("How I met them"), in which he talks about how he met important Romanian politicians such as Klaus Iohannis, Dan Barna, Traian Băsescu, and Ion Iliescu, and presents an analysis on the political, economic and social situation of Romania in the last 30 years.

He is the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a Romanian political party that gained prominence after its unexpectedly strong showing in the 2020 Romanian legislative election.

Simion studied at the Gheorghe Lazăr National College, the University of Bucharest and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, graduating from the latter with a master's degree in history.

The AUR garnered national and international attention after its unexpectedly high vote share in the 2020 Romanian legislative election.