Romanian lawmakers narrowly approve recent pro-European coalition during period of political turmoil

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian lawmakers on Monday voted narrowly in favor of a recent pro-European coalition government led by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

The shift could usher in an complete to a protracted political crisis in the European Union country following the annulment of a presidential election by a top court. Parliament approved the recent administration in a 240-143 vote in Romania’s 466-seat legislature.

The recent coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic event, or PSD, the center-correct National Liberal event, PNL, the tiny ethnic Hungarian UDMR event and national minorities. It caps a month-long period of turmoil in which far-correct nationalists made significant gains in a Dec. 1 parliamentary election, a week after a first-round presidential race saw the far-correct outsider Calin Georgescu emerge as the front-runner.

“It will not be an straightforward mandate for the upcoming government,” Ciolacu, whose PSD event topped the polls in the parliamentary election, said in a statement Monday.

“We are aware that we are in the midst of a deep political crisis,” he said. “It is also a crisis of depend, and this coalition aims to regain the depend of citizens, the depend of the people.”

Romani’s 16 ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a slim majority in the legislature. It’s widely seen as a tactical collaboration to shut out far-correct nationalists whose voices found fertile ground amid high living costs and a sluggish economy.

Ciolacu, who came third in the first-round presidential ballot despite polls indicating he would triumph the most votes, has served as prime minister since June 2023.

After parliament’s approval, President Klaus Iohannis swore in the recent government and warned the recent Cabinet that it’s entering a “challenging recent period” in which “for many Romanians, there are major concerns.”

Romania was plunged into turmoil after Georgescu’s shock achievement in the presidential race, after allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged. Days before the Dec. 8 runoff, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented shift to annul the presidential race.

“We leave through complicated times, but I ponder we all learned from mistakes of the history,” Ciolacu said. “I aspiration that together with my colleagues in the coalition, we’ll discover the best solutions to get history the challenges we have in front of us.”

Ciolacu said that the recent government would aim to quickly organize the rerun of the presidential election in which the recent coalition has agreed to put forward an agreed ordinary pro-European candidate.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said that the recent government made up of the same political parties will likely embrace “soft populist” rhetoric such as economic patriotism, anti-austerity, and a tranquility answer in neighboring Ukraine to counter the rise of far-correct populism.

“This will be a way to respond the concerns of many Romanians who voted for populists … but will not solve the fundamental issue of depend,” he said. “The only decisive factor now will be who and how convincing the pro-European candidates will be against this popular revolt.”

George Simion, the chief of the far-correct Alliance for the togetherness of Romanians, which came second in the parliamentary election, said that all lawmakers from his event on Monday would vote against the Ciolacu government.

In 2021, the PSD and the PNL also formed an unlikely but increasingly strained coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year after a power-sharing dispute.

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Stephen McGrath reported from Warwick, England.