Romania's political tumult continues as leftist party leaves talks to form pro-European coalition

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s leftist Social Democratic Party on Thursday withdrew from negotiations to form a pro-European coalition government, extending political turmoil that has gripped the European Union country after a top court annulled a presidential election.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the PSD, which won the most votes in the parliamentary election on Dec. 1, said his party was abandoning negotiations with three traditional parties after a fraught negotiation process failed.

“We will vote in Parliament for a right-wing government,” he said in a Facebook post. “We are doing this because this country urgently needs a government to manage current issues until the upcoming presidential elections.”

The PSD had agreed to form a majority coalition with the center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, the reformist Save Romania Union party, USR, and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, which aimed to shut out far-right nationalists who made significant parliamentary gains.

Without the PSD, the three other parties don't have enough seats to form a majority government.

The parliamentary election came on the heels of a presidential vote in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu won the first round. His surprise success plunged the EU and NATO member country into turmoil as allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged.

Days before the Dec. 8 presidential runoff, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential race.

President Klaus Iohannis, whose second term was set to expire this month, said a new date for the rerun presidential election would be set once a new government has taken office.

“You cannot build anything lasting with partners who are incapable of overcoming their own egos and ideological cliches,” Ciolacu said.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, says the PSD's withdrawal is a “crisis within crisis” and is likely due to tough economic decisions needed to address Romania's large budget deficit.

“No party of the new coalition likes to be part of a cabinet that needs to freeze pensions and public wages," he told The Associated Press. “This crisis will fuel further discontent with the mainstream parties and is probably already endangering the chances for a pro-European candidate in the rerun of the presidential elections.”