BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s electoral body Saturday rejected the candidacy of a controversial far-right politician in the presidential election rerun in May, but approved George Simion, the leader of the country’s most popular far-right party.
The Central Election Bureau, or BEC, rejected Diana Sosoaca's bid, which was filed on Thursday in the capital, Bucharest. She said she will appeal the bureau’s decision, which has to be submitted to the Constitutional Court within 24 hours.
The bureau said in its decision that it barred the pro-Russia Sosoaca, a former lawyer and leader of the far-right nationalist S.O.S. Romania party, from entering the race on the same grounds that she was excluded from last year's annulled election. The CCR argued that her public discourse, including opposition to Romania’s European Union and NATO memberships, made her unfit to uphold the constitutional obligations of the presidency.
In a public letter posted online and addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump after the bureau's decision, Sosoaca, 49, claimed that “the democratic system has been destroyed and that the elections have already been rigged.”
The court’s decision to bar her from last year's race drew strong criticism from some civil rights groups and politicians, who denounced it as undermining democracy or politically motivated.
However, on Saturday, the election bureau validated the candidacy of Simion, who leads the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, which is Romania's second biggest party in the legislature.
Simion, 38, who is under criminal investigation for inciting violence after last year’s first-round winner Calin Georgescu was barred this week from entering the May rerun, has expressed concerns that he could also be excluded from the upcoming race.
“Now let’s see if we can pass the CCR and return to democracy,” he wrote on Facebook. Simion — who came fourth in the first round of last year’s race with 13.8% of the vote — has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the investigation is politically motivated.
“I risk being subjected to the same abusive treatment … If they eliminated two, they think they can eliminate a third,” he told a news conference Friday after filing his candidacy.
Simion has stirred controversy on occasion. He campaigned for reunification with neighboring Moldova, which has barred him from entering the country. He is also banned from neighboring Ukraine, where authorities cited security concerns.
The Constitutional Court annulled last year’s election two days before the Dec. 8 runoff, after allegations emerged that Russia had run a coordinated online campaign to promote far-right Georgescu, who ran as an independent. Moscow has denied meddling in the election.
The court’s unprecedented decision last year plunged the European Union and NATO member country into a protracted political crisis and has drawn criticism from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Moscow.
Like other countries in Europe, the far-right vote has gained momentum in Romania in recent years.
In 2020, Simion’s AUR party — which proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom” — doubled its support in a parliamentary election on Dec. 1 with 18.2%, up from 9% four years earlier.
On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Bucharest waved European Union and Romanian flags at a pro-EU rally to counter what the organizers described as a “wave of sovereignism and ultranationalism” that “threatens our unity.”
“We are here to encourage each other because it is a very troubled period in Europe, the extremes are on the rise, especially the far right," Mihai Calin, an actor at the National Theatre Bucharest, told The Associated Press. “The impairment of Europe is underway. ... People are in danger of discouragement, disappointment. So we need to gather together to reunite.”
The BEC also approved the candidacy of pro-Western Elena Lasconi, leader of the Save Romania Union party, who was set to face Georgescu in the scheduled runoff last year.
The first round of the presidential rerun is scheduled for May 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the ballots, a runoff will he held May 18. The deadline for presidential candidacy bids closes at midnight on Saturday.
Factoring in potential candidacy rejections and subsequent appeals, the final list of confirmed candidates will be known on March 19.
George Simion, the leader of Romania's most popular far-right party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), speaks in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, March 14, 2025, after filing his candidacy to participate in the country's presidential election rerun in May as he seeks to rally nationalist voters in the wake of last year's controversial frontrunner being barred from the race. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Elena Lasconi, presidential candidate for the Save Romania Union (USR) party, gestures outside the electoral authority after registering her bid to enter the May presidential election rerun in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
George Simion, the leader of Romania's most popular far-right party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), walks with former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, right, in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, March 14, 2025, after filing his candidacy to participate in the country's presidential election rerun in May. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Controversial politician Diana Sosoaca, who was barred by a top court from entering last year's presidential election, raises her hands wearing boxing gloves and speaking outside the country's electoral authority after she registered an unlikely bid to enter the May rerun in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
One person died and two others were pulled from the wreckage of a partially collapsed church on Friday, after severe storms including a possible tornado swept through St. Louis.
Several other people were reported injured after the Friday afternoon storms, which tore roofs off some buildings, ripped bricks off of siding and downed trees and power lines as residents were urged to take cover.
At Centennial Christian Church, City of St. Louis Fire Department Battalion Chief William Pollihan told The Associated Press that three people had to be rescued after part of the church crumbled. One of those people died.
National Weather Service radar indicated that a tornado touched down between 2:30 p.m. and 2:50 p.m. in Clayton, Missouri, in the St. Louis area. It received reports of damages, mostly downed trees, weather service meteorologist Marshall Pfahler said.
The apparent tornado touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St. Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games the same year, Pfahler said.
The St. Louis Zoo posted a message on X, the messaging platform formerly known as Twitter, that it would remain closed for the rest of the day because of the weather. The post included no information on damages, a zoo spokesperson didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
“We can’t definitively say whether or not it was a tornado -- it likely was,” Pfahler said.
Radar confirmed a tornado above Venice, Illinois, about 2:50 p.m. CDT. It could be accompanied by golf ball-size hail, the National Weather Service in St. Louis said. Venice is northeast of St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River.
The weather service described the tornado as “extremely dangerous” and moving east at 50 mph. The tornado is part of a severe weather system that spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, downed trees, left thousands without power in the Great Lakes region and brought a punishing heat wave to Texas.
Weather forecasters warned that severe storms with hail and even hurricane-force winds also could hobble parts of Appalachia and the Midwest on Friday. Tornadoes were also a risk there.
The National Weather Service said severe weather was likely across parts of the central Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic states. Residents in Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, parts of Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Ohio should brace for intense storms that could include baseball-sized hail.
The weather service's Storm Prediction Center said that “strong, potentially long-track tornadoes and very large hail” could be expected. The threat for damaging winds in excess of 75 mph will increase into this evening as storms grow into larger clusters.
Ahead of Friday night’s anticipated storm, Appalachian Power, which serves 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said Friday it requested 1,700 additional workers from neighboring utilities along with sending its own crews from unaffected areas to assist with service restoration.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, in a post on the social media platform X, put residents on notice.
“Kentucky, there is a dangerous weather system moving through our state with a significant round this afternoon through tonight. Strong winds, hail, flooding and tornadoes are possible starting at 2 p.m. CT in Western Kentucky and reaching Louisville around 5 p.m. ET,” he said.
Shelters were opening in the Paducah, Kentucky, area.
Faith Borden, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service Nashville office, said Friday that middle Tennessee could expect "all types of severe weather. Winds up to 70 mph. We’re talking seriously large hail up to 3 inches, which for us is big hail.”
Texas, meanwhile, faced searing heat. A heat advisory was issued for the San Antonio and Austin, with temperatures at a blistering 95 F (35 C) to 105 (40.5 C). Parts of the southern East Coast, from Virginia to Florida, battled with heat in the 90s.
The National Weather Service Office for Austin/San Antonio said Friday the humidity coming in over the weekend is expected to make temperatures hotter.
“There are concerns of heat exhaustion for people that aren’t taking proper precautions when they’re outdoors,” meteorologist Jason Runyen said. He advised those affected to take breaks and stay hydrated.
Overnight Thursday, storms accompanied by booming thunder, lightning displays and powerful winds swept through parts of Wisconsin, Illinois, northern Indiana and Michigan — leaving scores of trees down and thousands of homes without power.
Several tornadoes touched down Thursday in central Wisconsin. None of the twisters have received ratings yet, said Timm Uhlmann, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Green Bay.
“We’re still gathering reports,” Uhlmann said. “We’re assessing some of the damage and still getting video and pictures. The damage that we have is fairly widespread. There was a lot of large hail. In Eau Claire was one report of softball-sized hail.”
No injuries have been reported.
Surveys also were underway Friday of damage in Michigan to determine if any tornadoes touched down there, said Steven Freitag, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake Township, northwest of Detroit.
The storms were fueled by temperatures in the lower 80s that stretched from Illinois into Michigan and were activated by a cold front that pushed through, Freitag said.
By midday Friday, about 230,000 customers were without power in Michigan. An estimated 60,000 were without power in Indiana. Another 27,000 in total had no electricity in Illinois and Kentucky.
The threat of severe weather in Chicago delayed a Beyonce concert by about two hours Thursday at Soldier Field.
Associated Press writer Haya Panjwani in Washington and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this story.
Cody Sparks, left, and Eric Combs with Lewis Tree Service work to clear a tree off of a power line near on 92nd Street near Caledonia, Mich. on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
Zeeland resident Maddie Pellegrini clears debris outside her family's home on 64th Avenue in Drenthe east of Zeeland, Mich. on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Isaac Ritchey/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
A snapped utility pole stands awkwardly off of 92nd Street near Caledonia, Mich. on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
A tree is uprooted from Thursday night's storm in Trail Creek, Ind., on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Donavan Barrier /La Porte County Herald-Dispatch via AP)
Downed trees are shown blocking Leo and Oakland Avenues in Trail Creek, Ind., on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Donavan Barrier /La Porte County Herald-Dispatch via AP)
A snapped tree is shown up against an apartment on Salem Court in Michigan City, Ind. on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Donavan Barrier /La Porte County Herald-Dispatch via AP)
Damage from Thursday's storm is shown along U.S. 20 in Michigan City, Ind., on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Donavan Barrier /La Porte County Herald-Dispatch via AP)
Trees lay in a playground in Dorr, Mich., after a severe storm ripped across Michigan the night before, on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake /The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
A tree branch covers a bus in Dorr, Mich., after a severe storm ripped across Michigan the night before, on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake /The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
A tree lays in a parking lot in Dorr, Mich., after a severe storm ripped across Michigan the night before, on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake /The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
A tree lays on a house in Dorr, Mich., after a severe storm ripped across Michigan the night before, on Friday, May 16. 2025. (Neil Blake /The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
