Thanks are owed to Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and - in a special mention — JD Vance: The aggressive nationalism and chaos these three men promote have made far-right populism scary again, swinging several recent elections, including Romania’s presidential vote on Sunday.

That should be welcome news for anyone who recognizes the potential damage a nationalist free-for-all can inflict. But make no mistake, without a radical transformation in their approach, this reprieve for traditional parties of the center right and left will be short-lived.

First there was Canada, where Trump’s trade wars and talk of turning the country into a 51st US state helped erase a commanding opinion poll lead for the country’s MAGA-look-alike Conservative party. Then, on Sunday, Bucharest’s mayor and math nerd Nicusor Dan scored an equally dramatic, come-from-behind victory to win Romania’s presidency. He ran as a moderate independent against George Simion, a nationalist who also had nailed his colors to Trump’s mast.

Vance ruffled feathers in Romania earlier this year, when he used the country’s annulment of a first-round presidential vote in November to accuse Europe of abandoning democracy. Vance dismissed the basis for that court decision – intelligence findings of a massive TikTok campaign organized and paid for by Russia — as “flimsy.” But as I

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