At a time of unprecedented political crisis, largely attributed to the current social democratic (PSD) government’s failed power plays, the socialists somehow managed to make everything even worse at the last minute.
Just two days before the official end of his mandate, socialist PM Marcel Ciolacu, whose party lost one-fifth of its seats but still won the elections, unexpectedly announced on Thursday, December 19th, that he was leaving the coalition talks with the three center-right, pro-European parties but will support their minority cabinet from the outside.
This comes a week after the four parties—PSD (S&D), the liberal-conservative PNL (EPP), the liberal USR (Renew), and the ethnic Hungarian UDMR/RMDSZ (EPP)—nominally agreed on a “democratic” coalition that would have included everyone but the three parties regarded as “far right” by the rest.
We already wrote at the time that finding common ground would be especially hard for the PSD and the anti-establishment USR, who basically built their entire campaigns on criticizing each other. The coalition would have had enough seats for a majority even without the USR, yet all three others agreed they’d rather include the liberals to show a united front against the surging Euroskeptic bloc and to be able to send a joint candidate to the presidential election which has to be repeated after being canceled by the PSD-controlled constitutional court due to (still unproven) allegations of Russian interference.
The negotiations took a turn on Wednesday when USR leader Elena Lasconi—the runner-up of the canceled presidential election—gave an eight-point ultimatum to the establishment parties in exchange for taking part in the government. It included creating an independent investigative committee to uncover what really happened; firing the leadership of the secret services and the electoral bureau; reforming the constitutional court; holding a referendum on banning prior convicts from being elected to public offices; and the resignation of the president at the end of his term to be replaced by the Senate leader as interim head of state until the March election.
As giving into these demands would have significantly weakened the PSD’s grip on public institutions, everyone just expected the socialists to say no and simply proceed without the USR. Instead, the party with the most seats in the parliament abruptly left the negotiation table, wishing good luck to the three remaining center-right parties’ minority coalition.
Although Ciolacu graciously promised to support the coalition in the parliament next week, it seems unwise for the others to form a government that would be at the mercy of the socialists and could be toppled at a moment’s notice. This is especially true at a time when the public’s trust in democratic institutions has collapsed due to the canceled elections, when there’s no legitimate president to hold the squabbling parties in line, and when the country is facing an economic crisis with Europe’s worst budget deficit but no government to approve the 2025 budget.
“It’s the lowest political gesture I’ve ever seen since the Revolution [of 1989]. After ruining the country for 3 years, now they want to run away,” USR MP Cătălin Drulă commented, accusing Ciolacu of trying to evade responsibility with his “immature” behavior.
“I’m not surprised by the PSD’s irresponsibility. Every time they ruined the country’s finances, they fled from governing,” Drulă said.
PNL leader and Senate President Nicolae Ciuca immediately called for PSD’s return to have any chance of a majority government—with or without the USR. This was also echoed by President Klaus Iohannis, who unilaterally decided to extend his mandate as interim head of state as there seem to be no clear constitutional guidelines for the given situation.
“The last thing Romania needs is an extensive government and parliamentary crisis,” Iohannis said on Thursday. “This is not the time for petty quarrels. It is time for every leader to see himself as a statesman, to sit down at the negotiating table, in order to have a government as soon as possible.”
A “statesman” is exactly what Ciolacu isn’t, as commentators accuse him of “sacrificing the country’s interest for petty and selfish political calculations.”
The PSD’s reasoning probably goes beyond the plan to come back stronger through a snap election whenever they feel like pulling their support from the government. By going into opposition, they also let the others deal with the economic crisis they caused and can use against them the fallout of the inevitable austerity measures—including possible pension reform and massive cuts to public spending—to build up their new campaign for the presidential election, which Ciolacu plans to win this time.
On top of that, it appears PM Ciolacu decided on his exit largely by himself, without even consulting many of his ministers and other high-ranking party members. “This is the moment when the PSD should consider changing its leader or ignoring his decision if it wants to stay relevant on the political stage in the coming years,” political analyst Dan Tăpălagă wrote.
But the question is whether there’s anyone left who can make that call in a country that’s been hijacked by a socialist prime minister who refuses to let go of his power.
