If there’s one thing capable of uniting all Europeans, it’s making political statements with glitter and voting in three of the 27 EU member states on the same day.

Far-right candidate George Simion was defeated in Romania's election by the pro-EU Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan.

If this past weekend in European politics is an indicator of anything, it's that the "Trump effect" is real, and its reverberations are unpredictable.

Romania is a cornerstone of both the EU and the NATO defense alliance. But the rise of Simion, a self-declared Trumpist who favors cutting military aid to Ukraine, had fueled fears that the country of 19 million could be destabilized if he were elected president — although he took pains to assuage those concerns.

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Citizens in Portugal, Romania, and Poland all cast ballots over the weekend. Two of the elections ended, and there was a major upset in the countries’ balance of power. The third is ongoing and has shown a much tighter margin between candidates than expected.