Brussels – The Romanian electoral process looks more and more like an ugly mess that keeps getting worse. After the historic cancellation of the first round of the presidential elections and the exclusion of the favoured candidate, the ultranationalist outsider Călin Georgescu, the shocks have now reached even the liberal-democratic galaxy. Elena Lasconi, the candidate of the centre-right USR, has been cornered by the leaders of her own party, who fear an excessive fragmentation of the pro-European front to the benefit of far-right candidates and have decided to support former colleague Nicușor Dan. But the leader of the liberal-conservative formation doesn’t seem willing to step aside.
From Bucharest comes yet another twist in the almost sci-fi presidential election saga. The Balkan country has set a historical precedent when, last December, the Constitutional Court decided to cancel the entire first round of voting based on intelligence reports about Russian influence. Independent candidate Călin Georgescu, from the area of the sovereignist, eurosceptic and pro-Kremlin radical right, was then formally ousted from the election contest, rescheduled for May 4.
His political capital has been picked up by the other leading figure of the national-populist, pro-Russian ultra-right: George Simion, leader of the AUR party (affiliated with the ECR Conservatives in Strasbourg), whom polls now give a clear lead over the contenders, as had also been the case for Georgescu until a month ago. Exact figures vary considerably from survey to survey, but on average, Simion is accredited with about 32 per cent of support, while other three crowd around 17–20 per cent.
There is the capital’s mayor, Nicușor Dan, one of the founders of the USR, who, however, is now running as an independent. Then there’s Crin Antonescu, another longtime liberal (but in the ranks of the NLP) and chosen as the unitary profile by the governing coalition, consisting precisely of the NLP plus the Social Democrats of the PSD and the Hungarian minority of the UDMR. Finally, there is Victor Ponta, a former socialist premier who also presents himself as an independent, but this time with a sovereignist platform.
So, USR cadres have announced that they will withdraw their support for Lasconi to back Dan officially so as not to scatter the target constituency’s votes further. A decision by the party’s national office yesterday (9 April) marked the potential end of the race for the USR’s president after a poll commissioned by the leadership itself gave her a meagre 4.1 per cent, significantly below the average of the other surveys (which in any case hover around unflattering figures, around 10 per cent).
“Even though it is a painful decision for the party, we voted to support an independent candidate for the presidency of Romania,” said Dominic Fritz, mayor of Timisoara and number two of the USR, also urging the PSD and the NLP to support the first citizen of Bucharest to prevent the runoff from turning into a sovereignist derby between Simion and Ponta.
The mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan (photo: Daniel Mihailescu/Afp)
Installing either of them as head of state, the reasoning goes, could cause quite a few problems in a key country on NATO’s eastern flank, which borders Ukraine and overlooks the Black Sea. “We cannot allow this to happen,” Fritz continued, adding that Dan “is the pro-European candidate with the best chance of stopping this toxic scenario.”
But Lasconi—who in last November’s first round (later cancelled) came second with 19.18 per cent, qualifying for the runoff—did not take his deputy’s move sportingly. Calling him and the other leaders “a bunch of traitors” and “opportunists,” she refused to resign or even step aside. “I am not stepping down; I will continue to fight,” she declared. According to her, the national office does not have the authority to choose or withdraw candidates, a power that would instead rest with the party congress.
The USR Policy Committee met today, and a final decision should emerge. Fritz noted that if the national office line is confirmed, Lasconi would be left with little alternative to resignation from the presidency. At the time of publication, no further updates had come.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
