[Ci-dessus : le reportage vidéo de notre correspondante à Bucarest]
Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced his resignation on Monday following the electoral setback suffered in the legislative elections, but his pro-European liberal party is expected to stay in power because of the alliance games.
“I decided today to submit my resignation”, he declared on television, after an interview with the head of state Klaus Iohannis.
Mr. Iohannis immediately took note of this decision and appointed Minister of Defense Nicolae Ciuca in the interim.
In the coming days, he will convene consultations with the aim of composing a center-right coalition, despite the unexpected victory of the Social Democrats of the PSD (30%) ahead of the Liberals of PNL (25%).
While this election was marked by a record abstention rate (68%), the president assured to have understood the message of the voters: “Many Romanians were unhappy with me, political parties or certain measures” adopted to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
Klaus Iohannis had invested heavily in the campaign for the Liberals from whom he came, at the risk of being accused of “twisting the Constitution”.
“New start”
This bias was also pinned on Monday by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In a statement, she recalled that “blurring the distinction between presidential prerogatives and the electoral campaign (was) contrary to international standards and to countries’ commitments not to mix state and political parties”.
Mr Orban, 57, was appointed Prime Minister in November 2019, following a motion of censure that overthrew the Social Democratic government, amid massive protest in the street and criticism of Brussels targeting “breaches of the rule of law”.
But it will have lasted only a year, paying the price for a criticized management of the pandemic and an economic crisis that threatens to continue.
His departure should facilitate negotiations with the reformists of a young center-right alliance, USR-Plus, who requested the appointment to this post of a “credible personality” who brings “new life”.
A third party should join: the party of the Magyar minority, UDMR, which won 6% of the vote.
“The coalition that will undoubtedly be formed around PNL will be extremely fragile “, as it will depend on the divergent interests of other parties, warns political scientist Adrian Taranu, interviewed by AFP.
A candidate of the PSD?
If the negotiations are successful, “the government could be formed quickly, but the liberals will find it difficult to manage this alliance in the long term”, he adds, pointing out that the PNL will be once again “at the mercy of the social democrats” to push through key reforms in parliament.
It will first be necessary to rule out PSD, who felt he was entitled to inherit the post of Prime Minister in view of the results of the poll.
According to Mr. Taranu, the party is perfectly entitled to propose a candidate and “will probably do it, in order to put President Iohannis in a delicate position, even if he knows he has no chance of forming a majority”.
The only other formation to have crossed the 5% mark to enter Parliament is theGOLD (8.8%), which describes itself as “nationalist” and close to the Orthodox Church, the majority in Romania. The PSD confirmed to Euronews that he would not partner with this party.
After a stormy cohabitation between 2016 and 2019 with three social democratic governments, Mr. Iohannis does not want a return to the business of this formation during his second term, which runs until 2024.
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