Talks on the 2024 election schedule

The leaders of the ruling coalition in Bucharest failed to reach an agreement on merging the elections.

Roxana Vasile, 13.02.2024, 13:50

Postponed once, last week, Mondays meeting of the ruling coalition leaders ended in no result. More exactly, the PSD and PNL leaders did not manage to reach any agreement on holding two types of elections on the same day. We remind you that this year, four types of elections are held in Romania, namely, for the European Parliament, for the national parliament as well as local and presidential elections. PSD and PNL, the parties making up the ruling coalition, presented a number of reasons why the elections for the European Parliament and the local elections should both be held on June 9, while the elections for the national parliament should be held in fall, on the same date with the first or second round of the presidential elections. At the beginning of the meeting of the ruling coalitions leaders, the Liberal Nicolae Ciucă said that his party would accept a merger of one of the rounds of the presidential elections with the elections for the national parliament: „We discuss holding simultaneous elections as a solution to avoid five rounds of elections in six months. Parliamentary elections and the second round of the presidential ones on the same date could be a solution. Why not? We analyzed the situation and the first round of the presidential elections would be a better fit, in legal terms. Before initiating any talks on holding simultaneous elections, we have asked the partys Political Bureau for a mandate to negotiate on this topic and this topic only.”

However, Mondays meeting did not end in any agreement, which is why, according to political sources, it is possible that the four rounds of elections could each be held on a separate date. A new meeting between PSD and PNL is expected on Friday. There is not much time left to decide, as the Social Democrats and the Liberals must take a quick decision on how to hold the elections, because the Executive must adopt, by the beginning of net month, the normative acts needed to organize the first elections, those for the European Parliament. In any case, the Prime Minister and PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu, said that he wanted a clear election scheduler: „As a Prime Minister, but also as party president, I am interested in coming before the Romanians as a ruling coalition that respects the citizens and sets a calendar for all the elections, in order to put an end to these endless discussions. We have four types of elections in one year. It has never been the case before.”

As for the Opposition, it can be nothing but happy with separate elections, because in their opinion, holding them simultaneously is undemocratic and unconstitutional and to the advantage of the ruling parties. (EE)