Romanian actor gets 7% of votes in EU Parliamentary elections, ruling alliance gets 37%

Romanian actor Mircea Diaconu who ran as an independent candidate in this year’s European parliament elections, won 6.95 percent of the total votes in Romania, according to partial results after the counting of 94 percent of the ballots, the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) announced. This result puts him ahead of the Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania (UDMR), which got 6.48 percent of the votes, and of the People’s Movement Party (PMP), which only got 6.24 percent of the votes. The winner of the elections is the governing alliance led by prime-minister Victor Ponta, which got 37.25 percent, some 4 percent less than Sunday’s exit polls indicated. The governing alliance is made of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Conservatory Party (PC) and the National Union for Romania’s Progress (UNPR). PSD’s result is better than in 2009, when it got 31 percent of the votes. The National Liberal Party (PNL), which left the governing Social Liberal Union (USL) in February this year, got a little under 15 percent of the votes. PNL lost a lot of votes to Diaconu, who was a member of the PNL until the beginning of this year, but resigned from the party after he was found incompatible and decided to run by himself in the elections. However, PNL’s result is a little above that in 2009, when it got only 14 percent of the votes. The Democrat Liberal Party (PDL), the party that governed Romania until May 2012, got 12.26 percent of the votes, far less than in 2009, when it had some 29 percent. PDL lost votes to the Popular Movement Party (PMP), a party which was formed just a few months ago, mainly by ex-PDL members, and which took a little under 7 percent of the vote. PMP is also supported by Romanian president Traian Basescu. The extremist Great Romania Party (PRM), which got 8 percent of the votes back in 2009, didn’t get the 5 percent needed in order to enter the EU Parliament. Neither did the Civic Force (FC) the party led by ex-prime minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu. editor@romania-insider.com