Nine governments in eight years, of
\nwhich four – three Socialist and one Liberal – since the previous parliamentary
\nelections alone – all this does not precisely point to a healthy party system
\nin Romania. Reassured by winning a second term last November with more than 66%
\nof the votes in the final round, president Klaus Iohannis insists that his
\nfirst choice is holding early parliamentary elections. The idea is shared by
\nthe National Liberal Party, a firm supporter of the president, by the Save
\nRomania Union and by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, but
\nopposed by the other parliamentary parties. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Opinion polls indicate that the
\nNational Liberal Party is by far the most popular party in Romania right now,
\nwith 47% of voting intentions, while the Social Democrats, formerly in power,
\nare credited with only 20%. Together with its partners from PLUS, the Save
\nRomania Union has around 15% of voting intentions. The Democratic Union of
\nEthnic Hungarians in Romania are credited, as usual, with a little over the 5% needed
\nto enter Parliament, while the People’s Movement Party, the Alliance of
\nLiberals and Democrats and Pro Romania are credited with less than 5%, so they
\nare not exactly happy with the idea of early elections. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In an attempt to avoid the traps of
\nthe Constitution, which experts say is drafted in such a way as to make early
\nelections almost impossible, the president on Thursday again mandated the
\nleader of the National Liberal Party Ludovic Orban with forming a new cabinet.
\nThe nomination came after Orban’s first cabinet was dismissed through a vote of
\nno-confidence filed by the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of
\nEthnic Hungarians in Romania over a bill to reintroduce the two-round voting system for
\nmayors. If senators and deputies reject Orban’s new cabinet, the president can
\nmake one last proposal whose rejection would mean calling for early elections. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Until then, political parties are
\nrehearsing for the local elections in a few months’ time. Still the biggest
\nparty in Parliament and led at the moment by the speaker of the Chamber of
\nDeputies Marcel Ciolacu, the Social Democratic Party is hoping to mend, at the
\nparty’s extraordinary congress this year, some of the deep wounds sustained
\nlast year when the former leader Liviu Dragnea was sent to prison for
\ncorruption and his successor and ex-prime minister Viorica Dancila resigned
\nafter losing the presidential elections with the party’s lowest score in the
\nlast 30 years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The leaderships of the Save Romania
\nUnion, the third biggest party in parliament, and the extra-parliamentary party
\nPLUS, led by the former prime minister and European commissioner Dacian Ciolos,
\nsaid on Saturday they were considering a merger. The conditions are to be discussed
\nat the congresses of the two parties, but commentators are expecting some tough
\nnegotiations, especially after an internal vote in the Save Romania Union in
\nwhich 91% of its members said they wanted their party to position itself as a
\ncentre-right party. In the European Parliament, however, the MEPs of the Save
\nRomania Union and PLUS alliance are affiliated with the centrist Renew Europe
\ngroup, which is the baby of the French president Emmanuel Macron, a former
\nminister in Social governments. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After European and presidential elections last year, Romanias political parties are getting ready for local and parliamentary elections this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":84477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29457,19347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-politics","tag-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n