Romania’s president comments election result: No clear winner. A center-right coalition is quickly taking shape

The results of the parliamentary elections show no clear winner, but a center-right coalition is quickly taking shape, president Klaus Iohannis said on Monday evening, in his first public statement after the December 6 elections. He suggested that this center-right coalition will form the new Government and that the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which took the highest score in the elections (about 30% of the total votes), will not have the political decision anymore.

“In just a few days, I will summon the parties in the new Parliament to consultations to find the best solution for Romania,” Iohannis said.

The president analyzed the result of the elections in mathematical terms. He pointed out that the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL) took a score of 26%, up from 20% in December 2016 and that the Save Romania Union (USR) together with PLUS took 15%, almost double compared to USR’s score four years ago. Meanwhile, PSD got 30% of the votes, recording “a dramatic fall” compared to its 2016 score – about 45%, Iohannis added.

“It is clear that if we gather the results, the center-right parties together got over 50% of the votes. This was my goal and, for this reason, I had to express myself a little more often in public in recent weeks,” Iohannis said.

In recent months, the president has held weekly press conferences from the Cotroceni palace, in which he talked about the measures taken by the Government to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. During these press conferences, he took every opportunity to praise the Government’s work and blame the Social Democrats for the things that went bad. However, these interventions were not enough to bring PNL the victory in the elections and the party’s score is far below the one in the local elections in September and the estimates indicated by opinion polls.

“We must be very honest: turnout was low and it is very clear that there are many Romanians who either did not receive enough information or are dissatisfied with me, the parties, the political class, or certain measures that were taken,” Iohannis said.

However, he did not mention in any way the surprising score of the Alliance for Romanians’ Union (AUR), an ultra-nationalistic party, which emerged as the fourth-biggest political force in Romania’s Parliament after taking 9% of the total votes. This party’s score is a direct consequence of some of the unpopular restrictions and measures enforced by the Government and local authorities in the last three months.

(Photo source: Presidency.ro)