Romania pro-EU parties strike coalition government pact

BUCHAREST — Four pro-European Romanian parties struck a deal Monday to keep the far right out of government and chose a common candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, was also reappointed prime minister Monday by outgoing liberal president Klaus Iohannis, who gave his backing to the new pro-European coalition.

The country has been in crisis after presidential elections were cancelled earlier this month, a hugely unusual move in Europe, after a far-right candidate scored a surprise first-round victory amid claims of Russian interference.

The hitherto little-known Calin Georgescu is contesting the annulment in the courts, accusing the authorities of "a formalised coup d'etat".

But intelligence documents declassified by the president's office of the NATO and EU member which borders Ukraine listed cyberattacks, "aggressive Russian hybrid actions" and massive promotion of Georgescu on social media in the run-up to the vote.

Ciolacu admitted leading the country would "not be easy" after the electoral chaos, with far-right parties taking an unprecedented third of the ballots in parliamentary elections held on December 1. 

"Our duty above all is to defend democratic values and within NATO," he added.

The coalition deal unites the ruling Social Democrats (PSD). The biggest party after the poll on 22 per cent, with the liberals of the PNL, the Hungarian minority UDMR and a parliamentary group representing other minorities.

But they have a stiff challenge ahead of them in the presidential polls with the far right surging on mounting anger over inflation and fears over the war in Ukraine, which shares a long border with Romania.

The far-right nationalist bloc tripled its score from the last parliamentary election in 2020 to 32 per cent, led by the AUR on 18 per cent.

The AUR's spokesman Dan Tanasa blasted the new coalition government as a "simulacrum of democracy", saying all the electoral procedures had been forced to put in place "an illegitimate government".

The new coalition government comes after a breathtaking month of political drama, with Georgescu's possible path to presidency barred by the constitutional court on December 6 when it ruled that the first round of the vote had been "marred... by multiple irregularities and violations of electoral legislation".

Georgescu, 60, a former senior official and past admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had denied he was linked to Moscow, recently reframing himself as "ultra pro-Trump".

The new governing coalition has chosen Crin Antonescu to run in the next presidential poll. The 65-year-old former president of the liberal party came third in the 2009 presidential election.