Romania’s main opposition party, almost as popular as the ruling party – electoral poll

A poll carried out at the request of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the main opposition party in Romania, apparently revealed that PNL is almost as popular as the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD). According to the poll’s results announced by PNL president Ludovic Orban, PNL would score 27% while PSD would get 30% of votes, local Mediafax reported. “This is a very bad score for them. Think about the polls in January-February 2017, when PSD reached a score of 54-55%. PNL was at 16-17% after losing the elections (e.n. the December 2016 parliamentary elections),” Orban said at local TV station B1. Junior ruling coalition partner ALDE (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats) would come third with 11.5% of votes, followed by opposition party Save Romania Union (USR) – 10.2%, Pro Romania (the party of former prime minister and PSD leader Victor Ponta) – 5.5%, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) – 5.1%, PLUS (the newly formed party of former PM Dacian Ciolos) – 5%, and People’s Movement Party (PMP) – 4.2%. The same poll revealed that only 17.6% of respondents believe that Romania is heading in a good direction at the moment, Ludovic Orban also said, adding that almost 60% of PSD voters say Romania is heading in the wrong direction. Orban also said that the survey showed that the Romanians want to “enjoy the same rights and obligations as any other EU state.” Also, the Romanians also want Romania to join the Schengen area. Almost 26,000 people took part in this survey, which was carried out face to face, according to the PNL president. Politico says PSD still the strongest Romanian party Romania’s ruling coalition lost majority, poll shows newsroom@romania-insider.com (photo source: Inquam Photos / Alexandra Pandrea)