Image source, Reuters

It has been a frantic night of politics in Europe, with three elections including one result and two indicative exit polls in the last couple of hours.

The headline election was Romania's presidential vote, with liberal Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan coming out the winner ahead of nationalist George Simion.

Dan initially topped the exit polls, but Simion immediately claimed victory, only to see the prediction turn into reality as the votes were counted.

Dan told his supporters "victory is yours".

Poland was also holding a presidential election, and Polish TV's exit poll indicated that Warsaw's liberal Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski received 30.8%, while national-conservative historian Karol Nawrocki won 29.1% of the vote.

Image source, EPA

The pair will now head into the second round scheduled for 1 June.

And Portugal held a general election, the third in three years, with an exit poll for TVI and CNN Portugal showing that the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) won between 29.1% and 35.1% of the vote.

The big change was the rise of the far-right Chega party which was predicted to almost match the vote share of the opposition Socialists.

We're about to bring our coverage to a close for the day, but you can continue reading with our news story on Warsaw's liberal mayor leading the Polish presidential vote.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent, reporting from Bucharest

Image source, Reuters

Nicusor Dan waited until he was absolutely sure of victory before emerging to greet his voters.

When he finally came into the street they went wild, chanting his name and cheering.

The police struggled to hold people back behind metal barriers and at one point Dan was almost mobbed.

But he kept smiling.

This was a huge moment for the mathematician, turned mayor – now Romanian president.

For his voters it was also an enormous relief after months of political tension.

Supporters of his rival, nationalist George Simion are planning a protest tomorrow.

But tonight as Dan headed back to his headquarters in central Bucharest, the crowd outside carried on their victory march and their street party.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Image source, Reuters

Portugal's incumbent ruling party, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD), has claimed victory in the early parliamentary election - although it fell short of a full majority again, according to provisional data.

The centre-left Socialists and far-right Chega are vying for second spot with around 23% of the vote - a remarkable result for Chega, which only achieved 7% only three years ago.

Calling the result a "calamity", Sérgio Sousa Pinto, a Socialist MP, told Portuguese media that his party would "have to face the reasons for this tragedy".

Meanwhile, jubilant Chega leader André Ventura told reporters that his party had "killed bipartisanship in Portugal" and hailed it as a "victory for the country".

Image source, Reuters

Romanians who voted for Dan started to celebrate even before their candidate declared his election triumph.

Here are a few photos from Bucharest, reflecting a jubilant mood in the victorious camp of the Romanian capital's liberal mayor.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Image source, EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Laura Gozzi
Reporting from Palais de Justice court in Paris

It sounds like a short time after his victory was declared Nicusor Dan was already taking calls from European leaders.

France's President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media platform X that he has spoken to Dan and "congratulated him on his election as president of Romania".

Macron noted that "despite numerous attempts at manipulation, Romanians tonight chose democracy, the rule of law and the European Union" and promised that France would stand by Romania's side.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Getty Images

Romania's next president has told his supporters that "victory is yours", surrounded by a crowd chanting his name "Nicusor", after partial results gave him an insurmountable lead in the presidential run-off.

Outside Bucharest City Hall, supporters carried a European Union flag, and Dan stood at a lectern adorned with a Romanian flag, saying "what you did as a society was extraordinary".

"Romania begins a new stage tomorrow and needs each of you," he said, announcing that reconstructing the country would start on Monday.

As supporters chanted "unity", Dan addressed Romanians who voted for nationalist rival George Simion:

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

The creator of the Telegram messaging app, Pavel Durov, has accused French intelligence chief Nicolas Lerner of asking him to "ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections".

He added that the two had met in the Hotel de Crillon, a luxury hotel in central Paris, earlier this spring.

Writing on social media site X, Durov says he refused, as Telegram does not block "protesters in Russia, Belarus, or Iran. We won’t start doing it in Europe".

Durov had put out a similar post earlier today too, mentioning that a Western European government had asked Telegram to silence conservative voices in Romania.

He inferred that government was Paris by using a baguette emoji in his post.

At that point France reacted by saying the allegations were "completely unfounded" - which may have irked Durov enough to decide to name names and mention Nicolas Lerner directly.

There has not yet been any further reaction or comment from France.

Image source, Reuters

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has just congratulated Nicusor Dan on his victory in the presidential race and says she is looking forward to working with him.

"The Romanian people have turned out massively to the polls," she posts on X.

"They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe."

Moldova's president Maia Sandu has also just congratulated the liberal mayor of Bucharest.

"Moldova and Romania stand together, supporting one another and working side by side for a peaceful, democratic, and European future for all our citizens," she said on social media.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

The liberal mayor of Bucharest cannot now be beaten by his nationalist challenger.

Even though George Simion claimed earlier that he had won, the exit polls were right and Nicusor Dan will declare victory imminently to his waiting supporters in the rain in Bucharest.

Poland offers little clarity on who will win the presidencypublished at 21:59 British Summer Time

21:59 BST

Adam Easton
Poland correspondent, reporting from Warsaw

Image source, Reuters

Over in Poland, it appears either of the front-runners could win the presidency in two weeks’ time.

A lot depends on which candidate can mobilise their electorate in the second round. Nawrocki was unknown on a national scale before Law and Justice (PiS) chose him as its candidate.

But he’s improved on the job, and PiS is traditionally good at getting their vote out.

Trzaskowski, a close ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, will need to win the votes of supporters of his centrist Civic Platform (PO) party.

However, he will also need votes from those supporting candidates of the junior coalition partners, the Left (Magdalena Biejat) and conservative Third Way (Szymon Holownia).

Image source, Reuters

Many of the young, far-right supporters would back Nawrocki for his Catholic, family-oriented views, but they dislike PiS’s left-wing economic policy of generous state benefits.

As for the leftist candidates, they were split about joining Tusk’s broad coalition in 2023 – Magdalena Biejat’s Left did to influence the government from inside, Adrian Zandberg’s Together stayed out on principle.

They did well if their totals are combined.

Some analysts say that will mean Tusk may reflect that support when it comes to pushing legislation to liberalise the country’s strict abortion law or legalise civil partnerships in future.

Trzaskowski may be tempted tack leftwards to court their progressive voters over the next two weeks.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Reuters

Nicusor Dan's chanting supporters have been told he's won and it now seems inevitable.

Dan is a mathematician as well as a liberal mayor, but anyone with basic arithmetic will know that he's won this presidential race, as the results begin to come through from the diaspora vote around Europe.

According to partial results, 11.64 million Romanians voted in this second round run-off. That includes 1.64 million outside Romania and just under 10 million in Romania itself.

With more than 99% of the vote now counted in Romania. Dan has 55% of the vote and nationalist pro-Trump candidate George Simion is on 44.94%.

Outside Romania there are still about 790,000 votes to be counted and although Simion is in front, there is no chance he can claw back the gap betwen him and Dan.

The liberal mayor has a comprehensive lead of 907,000 and there is no way back for Simion now.

Adam Easton
Poland correspondent, reporting from Warsaw

Turnout in Poland’s presidential election was 66.8% according to an exit poll.

That's the highest in the first round since the end of communism in 1989.

Turnout in the second round of presidential elections has been higher than 66.8% twice - in 1995 and 2020.

The official turnout will be released on Monday.

Rise of far-right in Portugal a shock to the political systempublished at 21:23 British Summer Time

21:23 BST

Alison Roberts
Portugal correspondent, reporting from Lisbon

Image source, Reuters

The history of the Socialist Party is intertwined with Portuguese democracy, and it has enjoyed more time in power than any other since the 1974 revolution. So the idea that it could be overtaken by far-right Chega represents a genuine shock to the country’s political system.

As recently as January 2022, then Socialist leader António Costa led the party to only its second ever majority in parliament. But his resignation in November 2023, amid an investigation into suspected irregularities in state contracts, prompted Portugal’s president to call a snap election that was won by the right-of-centre Democratic Alliance of Luís Montenegro.

Now, in an election triggered by a controversy involving Montenegro himself, in the form of lucrative deals done by his family company, the Socialists appear set to lose yet more seats.

Meanwhile, Chega – which has made opposition to large-scale immigration its main campaign theme – appears to have consolidated its position, or even leapfrogged the Socialist Party.

Image source, Reuters

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the "fight for everything" has just begun, following exit polls of the first round of the presidential election.

The next two weeks leading up to the second-round election, he adds, will determine the future of Poland.

While his favoured candidate, Rafal Trzaskowski, appears to come first in the polls, at 30.8%, it's far from a clear victory when it comes to the next round in just a fortnight.

Trzaskowski is expected to be running against national-conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

In Poland, the president has the power to veto laws. If Nawrocki wins in the second round, that would be a problem for Tusk's government to roll back judicial policies that they say undermined the rule of law.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent, reporting from Bucharest

Before voting in Romania came to a close, we got a chance to speak to nationalist challenger George Simion in person. Although exit polls give his opponent the lead, Simion insists he will be Romania's next president.

I wanted to know whether Simion was his own man, politically, or a puppet of the far-right candidate who was barred from running last year - Calin Georgescu.

Simion has constantly been on TV or in public side by side with Georgescu lately – and clearly counted on scooping up his votes.

“The puppets are those who annulled the elections,” Simion replied. “I am a man of my people and my people voted for Calin Georgescu.

"Do we like democracy only when the good guy has won? I don't think this is an option. We have to respect all the citizens and everybody who is voting.”

Simion, who leads the far-right AUR party, isn't an "establishment" figure, but he’s clearly an experienced operator – handling questions calmly, speaking to the point and in good English.

He dismissed concerns in the EU that he would shift Romania away from core European values. Simion said comments describing him as pro-Russian or fascist were smears by the “mainstream media”, calling himself a “patriot” and a “man of the people” instead.

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent, reporting from Bucharest

Image source, Sarah Rainsford/BBC

There’s a big crowd in the street outside the HQ of Nicusor Dan, waiting to hear from him.

There are EU flags flying, alongside Romanian national flags. The crowd are mainly young - including children here with their parents.

Mihai, a student, tells me he's here “to support the next president, so that Romania takes the European path. I was afraid Simion could change that".

Everyone is glued to their phones, watching the results come in, still not entirely sure how this will end. But they’re hopeful. Every so often they break out in cheers and chants of ‘Nicusor!’

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

More than 90% of the vote has been counted in Romania and Nicusor Dan, the liberal mayor of Bucharest, is well in the lead - pretty much mirroring the major exit polls we quoted earlier.

He has almost 54% of the vote while George Simion, the nationalist leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, has 46%.

But so far the count from Romania's diaspora voters is well behind and Simion is pinning his hopes on the votes in Spain, the UK, Germany, France and Italy to lift his numbers as they did in the first round.

Alison Roberts
Portugal Correspondent, Lisbon

Image source, EPA

Exit polls released after the close of voting in Portugal suggest the governing right-of-centre Democratic Alliance has added to its seat tally in parliament, but not enough to secure a majority, even if it does a deal with the smaller, economically more radical Liberal Initiative, as many commentators expect.

The exit polls also point to the main opposition Socialist Party shedding a significant number of seats and perhaps even being overtaken by far-right Chega.

Montenegro has ruled out doing any deals with Chega, whose leader, André Ventura, he dismisses as unreliable and populist.

Once the real results are in, it is entirely up to Portugal’s non-executive president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to decide whom to ask to form a government, after hearing all the parties with seats in the new parliament.

He has made clear that he will only nominate someone once he is sure that their new government’s programme will not be rejected -- either because no party tables a motion against it, or because enough parties indicate that they would not vote in favour of any such motion.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

If the exit poll is confirmed by the official result – not expected until Monday – both Rafal Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki will compete in a second-round run-off on June 1 as none of the 13 candidates won more than 50% of the vote.

Trzaskowski told his supporters at a rally in Sandomierz, southern Poland, “We’re going to win” but said a lot of work and “great determination” would be needed to win in the second round. “I’m convinced that all Poland will win,” he said.

He pledged to cooperate with prime minister Donald Tusk’s coalition government to liberalise the country’s strict abortion law and accelerate reform of the Polish judiciary, which was widely seen to have been politicised by the previous PiS-led government.

Trzaskowski performed worse than opinion polls predicted before the vote, which had him between 4%-6% ahead of Nawrocki.

Poland’s president has largely ceremonial powers but he or she is able to veto government legislation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition does not have a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn a presidential veto.

Tusk has failed to deliver many of his campaign promises, partly because the incumbent conservative President Andrzej Duda has vetoed his government’s legislation.

A victory for Trzaskowski would remove that barrier, but Nawrocki would continue to veto his plans.

Nawrocki told his supporters in Gdansk that Tusk must be stopped from winning total power in Poland. He called on supporters of far-right candidates, Slawomir Mentzen, who came third and won 15.4%, according to the exit poll, and of Grzegorz Braun, who came fourth and won 6.2%, to “save Poland” from Tusk.

Adam Easton
Poland correspondent, reporting from Warsaw

Image source, AFP

Rafal Trzaskowski is the 53-year-old pro-EU progressive polyglot mayor of Warsaw. He is also the deputy leader of Donald Tusk’s centre-right Civic Platform and has served as Europe minister.

Voters see him as representing left-liberal views, being supportive of LGBT+ rights and migrants, and they expect him to sign off legislation supporting civil partnerships, liberalised abortion and environmental protection.

Karol Nawrocki is a 42-year-old historian and head of the state-run Institute of National Remembrance. Unknown nationally until he became the Law and Justice Party’s (PiS) candidate.

Under the former PiS government, he took charge of the new Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk and changed its exhibition to emphasise Polish suffering and heroism in the conflict. He supports traditional Catholic values and portrays himself as standing up for average Poles.