section_path: Early political career (2019–2024)/2019 European Parliament election
section_name: 2019 European Parliament election
paragraph_text: 2019 European Parliament election
  
  Simion began his political career on 12 January 2019, announcing his independent candidacy for the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania. In How I met them, published that same month, he reflected on his decision to enter politics, recalling the government's response to the 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire as particularly pivotal:
  
  "I could no longer contribute within the civic movement, because I had already done everything humanly possible—and beyond human limits—to succeed. After 12 years of activism, I was tired of seeing efforts left unfinished, or even blocked by decision-makers. I truly couldn't go on anymore; my patience had run out"
  
  On his choice to run as an independent, Simion expressed scepticism towards established political parties, concluding that the European Parliament election was the only election in which an independent was likely to win a seat due to the lower electoral threshold. Having already been an activist for the unification of Moldova and Romania, Simion had as his main objective making this project a European one. His campaign slogan was România Mare în Europa (" Greater Romania in Europe", referring to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved in 1918 after the Great Union.
  
  In addition to this, he promoted an "anti-party" message, arguing that only an Independent candidate and not the different partisan interests could truly represent the interests of the Romanians. Simion declared he would fight for the rights of the Romanian minorities, such as those in Serbia or Ukraine, as well as the protection of the rights of Romanian diaspora members working in the European Union (EU). He also expressed his intention to halt the country's illegal deforestation and start the construction of motorways better connecting Romania and Moldova.
  
  Simion also promised to bring at least one child from every Romanian locality to the city of Brussels to teach them about the workings of the EU and to donate three-quarters of his salary as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) to projects in Romania or Moldova. In the election on 26 May, Simion got 117,141 votes, equivalent to 1.3 per cent of the votes in the election, failing to acquire an European Parliament seat.