Romania’s Pro-EU, NATO Parties Ahead In Elections Despite Far-Right Challenge

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Romanian parties backing the European Union and NATO military alliance narrowly averted a far-right challenge that could have moved Romania into Russia’s orbit in Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Exit polls and early results showed Romania’s ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) winning with roughly a quarter of the vote, followed by the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) with about 20 percent.

Analysts said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s PSD must form a coalition to govern that could include the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), its current governing partner, and others.

However, the outcome was due to be welcomed in Brussels after a pro-Russian candidate, Calin Georgescu, secured a shock victory in the first round of the nation’s presidential ballot.

Georgescu, a virtually unknown admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, won the ballot partly due to a wildly successful on social platform TikTok that officials said was backed by Russia, charges Moscow denies.

Yet the Constitutional Court ordered a ballot recount for the first round of the presidential election after an allegation of fraud from one of the 13 candidates, European Parliamentarian Cristian Terheș, who obtained about 1 percent of the vote.

The Court was to meet Monday to decide whether to annul the first round of the presidential election. If it does so, the entire presidential election would likely have to be rescheduled to mid- and late December.

FUELING FIRE?

Critics say that would fuel the country’s political blaze as it could raise suspicions that Romania’s ruling parties try to manipulate the vote to give themselves a second chance for the presidency.

Amid the turmoil, outgoing President Klaus Iohannis said Sunday’s vote would determine if Romania will “remain a country of freedom and openness or collapse into toxic isolation and a dark past.”

Romania was under the military and economic control of the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Soon after, it came under communist rule for four decades until 1989, when dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was deposed and executed.

Romania, an EU and NATO member state, has a 650-kilometer (400-mile) border with Ukraine and played a crucial role in Western support for Kyiv. In addition to providing military aid, Romania allowed the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta.

After Sunday’s poll showed more moderate parties narrowly holding on to power, Western diplomats hope the presidential elections will be won by the liberal Elena Lasconi, leader of the reformist Save Romania Union (USR).

She was to face Georgescu in the second round of the presidential vote on December 8. Brussels hopes her victory could halt Russia’s footprint in Central and Eastern European state where a pro-Russia bloc is emerging.

Kremlin-friendly Central and Eastern European leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico are set to be joined next year by a familiar face: Former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who is surging again in national polls.

Further away, Georgia saw a fourth night of street protests late Sunday and a string of public resignations, triggered by the pro-Russia ruling party’s move to suspend talks on joining the European Union.

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