The start of the European election campaign

Friday, the 25th of April, is the official start of the election campaign for the European Parliament.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 24.04.2014, 13:33

The candidates of 15 political alliances and 8 independent candidates are running in the European elections to be held on the 25th of May, while the election campaign starts officially on the 25th of April. In the opinion of political commentators, Romanian voters are not particularly interested in these elections, as was also the case in 2009, at the previous elections for the European Parliament.

According to opinion polls, the main political coalition in Romania, made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress in Romania and the Conservative Party, and which is currently in power, is likely to win the majority of seats. The National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party in opposition are significantly behind, followed by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior partner in the government, and the populist Party of the People in opposition. Other parties competing for a seat in the European Parliament are the Civic Force and the People’s Movement.

Political observers believe this campaign is very likely to degenerate into an exchange of virulent personal attacks amidst a turbulent political background. It is therefore to be expected that European issues such unemployment and the surge in nationalist and Xenophobic discourse will be replaced by internal issues. On the other hand, the European elections are a good test for the presidential elections in autumn. Commentators say the elections may be regarded by political parties as an opportunity to start negotiations in the run-up to the presidential elections. Apart from internal considerations, the results obtained by the Romanian parties are important for the distribution of seats in the European Parliament between the big ideological forces on the continent.

The alliance of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party are running on behalf of the European Socialists, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians on behalf of the European People’s Party, while the National Liberal Party is affiliated to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.