A convincing victory for the Social Democrats

The Social Democratic Party of Romania won a convincing victory in the legislative election held in the country on December 11. That political force received 46 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, the center-right National Liberal Party took second place with just over 20 percent of the vote. Save Romania Union, registered just this year, also got into the parliament, having cleared the 5 percent threshold.

The Social Democrats have failed to obtain enough votes to form the Cabinet on their own. They are expected to form a coalition with their longtime ally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which is led by former Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu and won 6 percent of the vote. Leader of the Social Democrats Liviu Dragnea already said that he would talk to Tariceanu on forming a parliamentary majority. Moreover, he assured Romanians that “everything we promised in the economic program during the election campaign will be implemented by the government of the Social Democratic Party.”

The Social Democrats would like to see their leader Dragnea become prime minister. However, he received a suspended sentence earlier this year because of his involvement in vote rigging during the referendum on the impeachment of the then president Traian Basescu. So, the law prevents him from holding a government office. The sitting Cabinet is headed by technocrat Dacian Ciolos. Romanians see the fight against corruption as the top priority for the coming government.

Let us recall that former Prime Minister of Romania Social Democrat Victor Ponta resigned past year after mass protests caused by a nightclub fire in October 2015, which killed 64 people. Afterwards, the nation was led by a technocratic government headed by former European Commissioner Ciolos.

Politicians of the Social Democratic Party and the media that support them employed populist rhetoric during the election campaign and subjected to sharp criticism everything that, in their view, was “foreign” and not “genuinely Romanian.” Turnout stood at 39.5 percent in the legislative election, making it over two percent lower than in the previous one, held in 2012.