Presidential elections 2025, tour 2, seen from the diaspora / Romanian from Austria, who also lived in Germany and Belgium: “We voted to stay on the European road, not to go back 35 years” / “Friends in the country are very scared, especially those who have children: to threaten Russia”

Reportage. In Vienna, the Hotnews team discussed with some of the Romanians who came to the vote and expressed their fears about the direction in which Romania is heading. Some of the ones I spoke to have said they voted to support European values ​​and democracy.

• There is a lot of voting in the diaspora, on the first day already double compared to the tour 1. People who have not voted so far, each with his individual story and his feeling.

Florentina and Cosmin Mihailov, 52 years old, came to vote at Section 19 at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna, together with their daughter, Mara, 23. “For order, discipline and stay in the European Union,” says Florentina.

“To vote informed”

“We are worried that all the benefits and advantages of Romania have in the EU are lost,” adds Cosmin. “We also respect the decision of some people in the diaspora to vote differently, but you have to vote informed.”

Mara was born with spastic paraparesis and needs the support of the parents in order to move. This is also the reason why the family left Romania eight years ago, after Mara finished the eighth grade as the head of promotion.

“I searched for a better future outside; there are greater chances to find a job here as a person with motor disabilities. And the medical system is much more advanced,” says Mara.

Her mother, Florentina, says that since her family moved to Vienna, the quality of their lives has improved. “The fact that we have where to walk-in Constanța, where we come from, the cars are parked on the sidewalks, for example. We had no place to walk.”

“We were well in the country,” she says. “I was a teacher, my husband – engineer; it was all ok. But Mara had no future in Romania.”

Now, Mara is a master's degree in the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​in Vienna and is preparing to become translators – speaks German, English and French. “I have always had a passion for foreign languages,” she says.

“It seems to me that the people in the diaspora should be pro-Europe”

Ștefana Pérez Flores (her husband is from Mexico), 35 years old, came to vote in Section 20 at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna. “I expect the future president to represent the country in a worthy and competent way,” she says.

Ștefana Pérez Flores (her husband is from Mexico), 35 years old, came to vote in Section 20 at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna. “I expect the future president to represent the country in a worthy and competent way,” she says.

He has lived in Vienna for 15 years, where he first studied landscape, and now he attends the courses of the Faculty of Musicology, which he is preparing to finish soon. Works part-time at the university. She left Timisoara, her hometown, at 19.

He did not vote in the first round, because he was on a trip to Egypt, but he says that now the “civic spirit” has taken her to vote. “I came to vote for democracy and for those in Romania. I am worried about what happened last year at the first tour. I want to go for progress, to be pro-European, not to return to the past.”

She was surprised by the voting decision of the Romanians in the diaspora in the first round of the presidential elections. “It seems to me that the people in the diaspora should be pro-European, to have more progressive ideas and I can not understand. It is also difficult to understand, because it is about political bubbles and we are all surrounded by people who think similar to us-friends.

“I have friends in the country, who are very scared of what will happen”

Smaranda Miron, 39, jurist, came to vote in Section 16 from the Romanian Embassy in the Republic of Austria. “We voted to stay on the European road, not to go back 35 years,” she says.

He has lived in Vienna for ten years and is originally from Iasi. At 23, after finishing the law school, he left for Germany for a master's degree in European law. He lived in Germany for a while, then in Belgium, returned to Germany and finally settled in Austria. “I realized that it is better to practice the right abroad,” she says.

Smaranda tells that, in the evening before the vote in the diaspora, he met with a few friends from Romania, who are in Vienna for a dentistry conference.

“I think they are more worried than us, those who live abroad. They were making plans to open accounts or buy houses in other countries. They are very scared, especially those who have children: the threat of Russia and the war-because they live in Iasi, Botoșani, Suceava-and then to the Economics Investors leave and no new projects come. ”

“I understand those who are upset – only that is not the case”

Smaranda says he never wants to return to Romania. “You can do law and there are extraordinary professionals in Romania, but I am worried about the healthcare system. I have friends who ski and, honestly, I tell them not to go to Romania, even if they like to be beautiful and cheaper. I tell them you break your foot and get to the emergency and go home with an infection – from a foot.”

“In addition, education. When I go home and pass by schools, I do not know … and we were young, but the vocabulary, the voice, the vulgarity, the level of the conversations … I scare me a lot.

“This is what we discussed today in the office with a colleague from Hungary-that they can not show us very much. It is a big part of the society that we did not know and that it is so numerous. I have a good friend from Turkey and, when there were the last presidential elections to them, I asked:” How is it possible for 70% of the Turks “.

The Romanians from the Diaspora vote for three days at the second round of the presidential elections of 2025. The sections from abroad are open from Friday to Sunday, between 7:00 and 21:00, the local time, with the mention that on Sunday the vote ends at the latest at 21:00, Romania time, regardless of the time zone. The Teleleu team documents the vote of the Romanians in Vienna, where there are six polling stations: here The full list of sections in Austria.