Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

A Romanian ultranationalist aligned with Donald Trump secured a first-round victory in a repeat presidential election and will head to a runoff against an independent centrist, dealing a blow to the nation’s ruling establishment amid outrage over persistent corruption and poverty. George Simion won about 41% and will face Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who got 21% of the vote. The candidate backed by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s ruling coalition came in third and will miss out on the May 18 runoff. Much is at stake, with Romanians deciding whether the country maintains the transatlantic course or turns to anti-establishment forces that have challenged the EU’s liberal order. Unlike most other European countries, Romania’s president is not a figurehead and represents the country at EU and NATO meetings and is commander-in-chief of the military.

— Patrick Donahue and Samuel Stolton

What’s Happening

More Sanctions? | President Trump is ready to turn the screw on Russia with a set of measures designed to end the war in Ukraine. Kyiv has been pressing western allies to impose more restrictions on Moscow’s energy exports and oil revenues. 

TikTok Fine | TikTok owner ByteDance was slapped with a €530 million fine for illegally sending EU user data to China. The company — which continues to face a potential US ban — has vowed to appeal the penalty from Ireland’s data watchdog.

Inflation Optimism | The European Central Bank can be confident of returning inflation to the 2% goal, Vice President Luis de Guindos told Die Presse. While the latest projections already foresaw a slowdown close to that level at the end of the year, the stronger euro and falling commodity prices will act as further dampeners, he said.

Golden Visas | Following a ruling from the EU’s top court last week, advisers are telling wealthy clients to speed up their investments in European ‘golden visas.’ The European Court of Justice said the program breaches the bloc’s citizenship rules.  

Around Europe

Sanchez Hunt | Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is looking for culprits in one of Europe’s worst blackouts ever. Last week’s outages exposed vulnerabilities in Spain’s grid and even caught solar panel owners off guard.   

French Debt | Prime Minister Francois Bayrou may require a referendum for plans to reduce France’s debt. The country needs to regain control of its finances after the budget deficit soared to almost double EU limits. 

Portugal Polls | Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s center-right coalition is leading his socialist opponents in the polls by 6.8 percentage points. The country holds elections on May 18. 

Red Tape | Germany’s promise to build up its energy and defense capacities has hit a snag. Restrictions on military airspace are throwing a spanner in the works.

Chart of the Day

France is leading the pack when it comes to boosting natural gas stockpiles. Fuel injections into the nation’s underground sites doubled those in Germany and were about 70% more than in Italy last month, according to new data. Europe needs to buy more gas than usual in coming months to replenish reserves, keeping volatility high in an already nervous market.

Today’s Agenda

All times CET

• 9:15 a.m. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and delivers speech at the “Choose Europe for Science” event at La Sorbonne
• 3 p.m. Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall speaks at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin
• European Council President Antonio Costa travels to Barcelona to highlight the bloc’s industrial efforts
• EU competition chief Teresa Ribera speaks at the Cercle d’Economia event in Barcelona
• European Parliament starts four-day plenary session in Strasbourg, France; environment committee holds exchange of views with EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra

Don’t keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here.

How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our Brussels bureau chief know.