Will the Social Democratic Party leave the ruling coalition?

Uncertainties persist on the Romanian political scene.

Bogdan Matei, 23.03.2026, 13:50

Judging by the figures, the pro-western government coalition has the majority in Romania’s two-chamber Parliament. With the contribution of the approximately 20 MPs from the group of national minorities, who, in practice, are not elected, like the other parliamentarians, but are designated by their ethnic communities and who always vote with the government, the coalition has approximately 70% of parliamentary seats. Ideologically, the parties in the Romanian government mirror the centrist composition of the European Commission: the Social Democratic Party is affiliated with the Socialists, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania with the People’s Party, and the Save Romania Union with Renew Europe.

Although everything seems to indicate that the government is functioning in a coherent manner, in reality, the opposite is true. After being the subject of heated debates, Romania’s state budget was eventually adopted in the second half of March, a situation that the press has described as an almost unprecedented occurrence in the 36 years of post-communist democracy.

A survey conducted by Avangarde and made public on Saturday reveals that when asked “How satisfied are you with the way the government led by (liberal) Ilie Bolojan is running Romania?”, 43% of respondents said they were totally dissatisfied, 37% rather dissatisfied, 17 percent rather satisfied and only 1% very satisfied, while 2% did not know or did not answer. Also, 49% of respondents said they were not at all satisfied with the prime minister’s activity, 24% said they were rather dissatisfied, 20% rather satisfied and 1% very satisfied, while 5% did not know or did not answer. Asked whether the direction Romania is heading is good or wrong, 79% of respondents said it is heading in the wrong direction, 18% believe it is the right direction, and 3% preferred not to say. For commentators, things are clear: the government is increasingly unpopular in the wake of the tough austerity measures it adopted in order to reduce the country’s budget deficit, the highest in the European Union.

Against this not at all cheerful background, the Social Democrats said they would hold an internal debate on whether or not to leave the government. For some of the Social Democrats, the solution would not be to leave the Executive, but to replace Prime Minister Bolojan with a liberal willing to bend to their demands. With one foot in power and one in opposition, analysts say, the Social Democratic Party would try to win back some of the voters lost to the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians.

Indeed, the Anvangarde poll indicates that if parliamentary elections were held next Sunday, the latter would get 35% of the votes. In the following places are the coalition parties, the Social Democrats with 22%, the Liberals with 14%, the Save Romania Union with 11% and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians with 5%. The rest of the parties would not pass the electoral threshold of five percent needed to enter Parliament.