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Only second place in parliamentary elections in Romania – that is a disappointing result for the NLP, even if it can still rule. Prime Minister Orban has now announced his resignation.
Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has resigned as head of government. The reason he cited the defeat of his PNL party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. From the vote, the opposition party PSD (Social Democrats) emerged victorious with around 30 percent. Orban’s NLP was around 25 percent instead of the expected 30 percent.
“I don’t hold onto any office,” Orban said. However, as chairman of his party, he wanted to participate in the upcoming negotiations on a governing coalition. The ruling pro-European PNL party could remain in power despite its defeat by forming a coalition with smaller parties.
Pressure from the president?
The media speculated that President Klaus Iohannis Orban had urged his resignation. Iohannis had previously indicated that he wanted to give the NLP a mandate to form a government despite the outcome of the elections. It’s clear that the center-right camp got more than 50 percent of the vote. Thus, the Social Democrats would be left “outside the political decision-making process in the first place.”
Iohannis, who has the exclusive right to propose a head of government to parliament, is fighting for a NLP-led coalition with the small eco-liberal USR-Plus and the Hungarian UDMR party. With the departure of Orban, USR-Plus, in particular, should make an alliance with the PNL acceptable, my observers, especially since this small party had emphatically criticized the prime minister personally.
Surprisingly strong ultranationalist party
Neither party obtained an absolute majority in the elections. According to the projections of the House of Representatives, the PSD reaches 29.79 percent, followed by the bourgeois ruling party PNL with 25.01 percent. The USR plus reached 14.84 percent and the UDMR 6.63 percent. This was announced by the central elections office in Bucharest after the votes were counted in 84.84 per cent of the polling stations. In the Senate (upper house of parliament) the distribution of votes was similar: PSD 30.18 percent, PNL 25.38 percent, USR plus 15.29 percent, UDMR 6.80 percent.
Another surprise of this election is the success of the ultra-nationalist alliance for the union of the Romanians AUR. The hitherto little-known party reached parliament with about nine percent of the vote. The AUR is committed to the reunification of Romania with the Republic of Moldova and has drawn attention in recent months with its ultra-nationalist rhetoric, but also with protests against the crown measures.
The success of the AUR is also attributed to extremely low turnout. Only about 32 percent of those eligible to vote cast their votes. That’s the lowest value since 1989.
With information from Srdjan Govedarica, ARD-Studio Vienna
