- Title: Romanian ruling Social Democrats withdraw from government coalition talks
- Date: 19th December 2024
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 17, 2024) (REUTERS) BUILDING WITH GRAFFITI READING (English): "THE FUTURE IS EUROPE"
- Embargoed: 2nd January 2025 13:07
- Keywords: Romanian social democrats breakdown coalitions elections
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA009829119122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Romania's ruling leftist Social Democrat Party (PSD) has withdrawn from government coalition talks, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Thursday (December 19), deepening a political crisis.
Three votes to elect Romania's president and parliament descended into chaos when a little known far-right NATO critic won the first presidential round on Nov. 24, prompting Romania's top court to annul it on suspicion of Russian meddling.
Although the PSD won the most seats in the Dec. 1 parliamentary election, three ultranationalist and hard-right groupings, some with overt pro-Russian sympathies, won more than a third of the seats to become a hard-to-ignore political force. The PSD was in talks over forming a wide coalition with three other pro-European Union parties in an attempt to cordon off the far right, but the four clashed over reform plans and measures needed to lower the EU's largest budget deficit.
Ciolacu said they were willing to vote for a minority government. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, whose term expires on Dec. 21 and who will nominate a new prime minister and stay on until his replacement is elected, said a minority government was not a good idea at times of crisis.
(Production: Anna Dittrich, Malgorzata Wojtunik) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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