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Pro-Western parties won the most votes, with the leftist Social
Democratic Party, or PSD, topping the polls. The PSD reached
agreement late Tuesday to form a grand coalition with the
center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, the reformist Save
Romania Union party, USR, and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR
party.
The parliamentary election came hard on the heels of a
presidential vote in which the far-right outsider Calin
Georgescu won the first round. His surprise success plunged the
European Union and NATO member country into turmoil as
allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference
emerged.
Days before the Dec. 8 presidential runoff, the Constitutional
Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential
race.
A statement from the new coalition said the parties would
potentially support a “common pro-European candidate” in the new
presidential elections. It isn’t yet clear whether Georgescu
will be allowed to run in the new vote.
President Klaus Iohannis, whose second term is set to expire
later this month, said a new date for the rerun presidential
election would be set once the new government has taken office.
“In the coming days, the four parties and the representatives of
the national minorities will work on a joint governing program,
focusing on development and reforms, while addressing the
priorities of Romanian citizens,” the coalition statement said.
Elena Lasconi, the leader of USR who was set to face Georgescu
in the annulled presidential runoff, said after the agreement
was reached that “Romania is going through a very difficult”
period and that cutting state spending and reducing bureaucracy
would be part of the governing program.
In 2021, despite historically being Romania’s two main
opposition parties that have dominated post-communist politics,
the PSD and the PNL formed an unlikely but increasingly strained
coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year
after a power-sharing dispute.
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