Pro-Western parties on top despite far-right gains in Romania election

Pro-Western parties will likely seek a coalition in Romania’s parliament, as final results show that the Social Democrats won the most votes in Sunday’s election.

At the same time, the EU and NATO member state also saw a huge surge of support for far-right nationalists.

The far-right nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) came in second, ahead of the centre-right National Liberal Party, while two smaller hard-right parties also got enough votes to enter parliament.

Political analyst Ion M Ionita said the increased parliamentary seats for the far-right will make forming a majority government difficult for the pro-Western parties because they are historically opposition parties and could struggle to reach agreements.

“We are still in a very complicated phase. Many things are not clear yet. Some important ones have been clarified, but there are things that are going to get clearer,” Ionita said, adding that “the decisive factor will be the next president who’ll name the new prime minister.”

The election revealed widespread anti-establishment sentiment in Romania, which is due to hold a presidential runoff on Sunday between far-right populist Calin Georgescu and liberal centrist Elena Lasconi of USR.

The first round of presidential elections, marked by Georgescu’s surprise win, plunged Romania into political turmoil and led to allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference.

Anti-establishment sentiments prevailing?

George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the far-right AUR party and a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, said the anti-establishment gains on Sunday amounted to a “watershed moment” for Romania.

“It is a moment when, through our common will, Romania is reborn,” Simion said. “We are here … generation after generation, proving that nothing can defeat a united nation.”

In 2020, AUR went from relative obscurity to gaining 9% in a parliamentary vote, allowing it to enter parliament. The anti-vax, hardline nationalist party accused of neofascism and antisemitism — which proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith and freedom” — won the largest share of the vote among Romanians living abroad, doubling its support in Sunday’s vote to 18.2%.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, says the increased parliamentary seats for the far-right will make forming a majority government difficult for the pro-Western parties as they could struggle to see eye to eye on main priorities, thus failing to reach an agreement.

“It’s not a unified majority, it’s a very fragmented one and full of hatred among the parties,” Andrei said.

“The European side won a majority … but a majority is very difficult to build, because all those pro-European parties are not enemies, but they fought a lot in the past.”