Romanian pro-European parties agree to form coalition government

 

Romanian pro-European parties agree to form coalition government

 

Parties may field single candidate in rerun of annulled presidential election next year

 

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Wed 11 Dec 2024 13.56 CET

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/11/romania-pro-european-parties-agree-form-broad-coalition-government

 

Romania’s pro-EU parties have committed to forming a coalition government and, in a concerted attempt to head off a resurgent far right, could field a single candidate for the country’s annulled presidential election when it is rerun next year.

 

The Social Democratic party (PSD), their current coalition partners the centre-right National Liberal party (PNL), the opposition centrist Save Romania Union (USR) and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR said they aimed to move fast.

 

“In the coming days, the four parties and representatives of national minorities will work on a common governing programme based on development and reforms that will consider the priorities of Romanian citizens,” they said late on Tuesday.

 

The PSD won the largest number of seats in the general election on 1 December, but three ultranationalist, hard-right and anti-system parties, some with overt pro-Russian sympathies, garnered more more than a third of the vote between them.

 

The far right’s parliamentary advance came a week after after Călin Georgescu, a little-known ultranationalist independent, shocked the country by coming from almost nowhere to finish first in the opening round of the presidential vote.

 

Georgescu’s success, after a campaign based heavily on viral TikTok videos boosted artificially by bots, drew accusations of foreign interference and prompted fears Romania would veer to the far right.

 

On Friday, two days before the scheduled runoff, the constitutional court annulled the first round, ruling it was “marred … by multiple irregularities and violations of electoral legislation” and saying the whole process would need to be rerun.

 

Setting the dates for the first and second rounds will be one of the new adminstration’s first tasks. In the meantime, the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, will nominate a new prime minister and stay on until a new head of state is sworn in.

 

The annulment followed the release of declassified intelligence documents detailing allegations against Georgescu and Moscow including cyberattacks and a “massive” campaign of thousands of social media accounts backing the far-right candidate.

 

The evidence suggested Georgescu was promoted on TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid promotion. EU governments were quick to point the finger, with Germany’s foreign ministry posting on X that it showed Moscow “wants to divide us and to undermine the unity within the EU and Nato”.

 

The parallel elections are seen as critical to the future direction of Romania, hitherto a reliable EU and Nato ally – and strategically important for western support for Ukraine – that has largely evaded nationalism since emerging from communism in 1989.

 

On Monday, Romanian investigators arrested two men for allegedly planning to instigate unrest after the court’s ruling.

 

Prosecutors also this weekend raided three addresses in the central town of Brașov linked to a businessman suspected of illegally paying €361,000 to TikTok users to promote Georgescu’s content on the Chinese-owned platform.

 

There is no clear link between the businessman and Russia, and Moscow has denied meddling in the election. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the Tass news agency Moscow was “deeply indifferent … to them trying to justify their machinations”.

 

Sunday’s second round would have pitted Georgescu against the pro-European USR leader, Elena Lasconi. With prosecutors still investigating his campaign, it is unclear whether the far-right candidate will be allowed to stand in the vote rerun.

 

Lasconi said on Wednesday that Romania was “going through a very difficult period” and that cutting state spending and reducing bureaucracy would have to be part of the new coalition administration’s programme.

 

Analysts said they expected the four parties aiming to form Romania’s new government were likely to struggle to agree badly needed measures to lower the country’s budget deficit, the EU’s largest at 8% of economic output.

 

Ratings agencies and the European Commission have said tax increases will needed, which would be likely to further erode the pro-western parties’ support.