The leftist-liberal coalition government of Romania appears on the precipice of collapse in the wake of the strong victory of populist George Simion in the first round of the redo presidential election on Sunday.
Social Democrat Romania Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Monday announced plans to resign and called on his left-wing Social Democrats (PSD) party to withdraw from the recently-formed coalition government with the globalist National Liberal Party (PNL) and the socially conservative Democratic Alliance of Hungarians (UDMR), Digi24 reports.
Following the cancellation of the previous presidential election in November, which saw populist Călin Georgescu banned after securing a surprise victory in the first round of voting over alleged Russian interference, a redo of the election was triggered. Georgescu ally and self-described “MAGA candidate” George Simion dominated in the first round on Sunday, winning 40.96 per cent of the vote. Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan came in second place with 20.99 per cent.
The governing coalition had placed all of its hopes in acting President Crin Antonescu of the National Liberal Party, with the Social Democrats deciding not to even run a candidate of their own. Yet, Antonescu came in third place with 20.07 per cent of the vote, eliminating him from the second round runoff to be held on May 18th.
Speaking before entering an emergency PSD party meeting in Bucharest, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said, “Given the vote of the Romanians, I will propose to my colleagues that PSD leave this coalition. If my colleagues vote to leave the coalition, naturally I, as prime minister of the coalition, will resign.”
Ciolacu added: “Today, after seeing the vote of the Romanians and the fact that this coalition did not fulfil its objectives, so having no credibility after the vote of the Romanians, I will propose to my colleagues that PSD leave this coalition.”
According to Digi24, an interim prime minsiter will likely be installed from the current cabinet, and following the presidential election, the next president will be tasked with negotiating between parliamentary parties to form a new government.
A government collapse over the first round of a presidential election, a rarity within European parliamentary politics, would reflect on the scale of the populist uprising in the country. Indeed, Simion’s victory was so large that he nearly doubled the vote share won by fellow populist Călin Georgescu in the cancelled November elections.
Yet, with the pro-Brussels globalist vote having been split between President Antonescu and Mayor Dan, it is possible for the neo-liberal faction to eek out a victory later this month if leftists and centrists rally around Dan, a tactic often deployed in other European countries like France to prevent populists from taking power.
However, Simion appears to be riding a wave of anger over the move to ban Georgescu from standing in the race, which critics claim came as a result of pressure from Eurocrats in Brussels over his opposition to NATO expansion and the war in Ukraine.
French populist presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, who is currently facing a potential ban of her own, commented that “Romania has just offered [European Commission President] Mrs. von der Leyen a very nice boomerang,” by backing Simion after Georgescu’s ban.
Like Georgescu, Simion has also opposed the West continuing to fund and arm Kyiv, and has backed President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring about a peace settlement to end the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.
While Simion has been a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, branding the Russian leader a “war criminal” over the 2022 invasion, the Romanian populist was banned from entering Ukraine last year over his opposition to sending arms and for his belief that parts of Moldova and southern Ukraine should be brought back under control of Bucharest, as was the case during the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period between WWI and WWII.
Should Simion win the election this month, he would join the growing number of President Donald Trump’s allies in the European Union. Last month, the Romanian politician told Breitbart News that if he and the Polish Presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki are victorious in their respective elections this month, they would serve as “pro-Trump presidents, pro-freedom presidents, and against the Brussels bureaucracy.”
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