{"id":409898,"date":"2024-12-02T15:28:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T14:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/12\/02\/romania-elezioni-estrema-destra\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T19:23:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T18:23:40","slug":"romania-elections-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/12\/02\/romania-elections-far-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Romania, the other side of the Social Democrats’ victory in the legislative elections: the far right is on the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Since Nov. 24, the date of the first round of the presidential elections that led to\u00a0the runoff<\/a> between the pro-Russian C\u0103lin Georgescu and the liberal<\/strong> Elena Lasconi<\/strong>, the EU spotlight has been constantly on Bucharest. Yesterday (Dec. 1), the Social Democrats (PSD) won the legislative elections<\/a> with 22.4 percent of the vote. A Pyrrhic victory since the\u00a0far-right\u00a0political forces secured 31 percent,<\/strong> driven by the result of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). “The beginning of a new era,” exulted its leader,\u00a0George Simion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Outgoing Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu<\/strong> – who did not make it to the runoff after the first round – could not hide the result. “The Romanians have sent an important signal to the political class,” Ciolacu commented. Continue on the European path “but also protect our national identity and values.<\/strong>” One-third of Romanian voters cast their votes for parties that flirt with Moscow, a reconfirmation of what happened a week ago, when between Georgescu and Simion, the ultranationalist and pro-Russian candidates secured\u00a0about 36 percent in the first round of the presidential election<\/strong>. Georgescu, an independent candidate, served in the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n

“Today, the Romanian people voted for sovereignist forces,” claimed Simion, whose AUR party garnered 17.8 percent of the vote, in second place behind the Social Democrats of the PSD. By his side, the far right can\u00a0count on SOS Romania (7.2 percent) and the Youth Party (6.3 percent)<\/strong> in Parliament. The three parties call into question support for resistance to\u00a0neighboring Ukraine and the country’s international positioning.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Elena<\/a>
USR leader Elena Lasconi celebrates with her supporters the results of the first round of the Romanian presidential elections, November 25, 2024 (photo: Daniel Mihailescu\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, the Liberal National Party (NLP) – in the government in coalition with the PDS since 2021 – was the third most-voted party, with about 14 percent of the vote. The center-right liberals of Elena<\/strong> Lasconi<\/strong>, still running for president of the Republic, came in\u00a0only<\/strong> fourth<\/strong>, with 12.2 percent<\/strong>. The recorded turnout of 52 percent is the highest in the last two decades for legislative elections.<\/p>\n

The elections to renew Parliament — and thereby\u00a0form a new government — are inevitably intertwined with the election of the president of the Republic. In light of the far-right’s resounding result, several moderate leaders have already launched\u00a0appeals for a government of national unity, which could bring together PSD, NLP, and Lasconi’s Save Romania Union<\/strong>. “United, we can work miracles,” the latter declared, launching an appeal to put aside inter-party quarrels to “defend democracy” and protect Romania from Kremlin interference. Considering her party’s modest result, the call for unity is crucial for the second round of presidential elections, scheduled for Dec. 8, when Lasconi will face Georgescu.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>
Calin Georgescu, 26\/11\/2024 in\u00a0Izvorani, Romania. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

If the Constitutional Court does not decide to annul the first round after ordering a vote recount due to vote integrity suspicions<\/strong> that led to Georgescu’s feat. In the middle is the role<\/a> played by TikTok, which, according to the Romanian media watchdog, unduly favored content from the\u00a0ultra-nationalist candidate.<\/p>\n

An entire country hangs on the court’s decision, expected in the evening. Current Premier Ciolacu, who was left out of the runoff by a handful of votes in favor of Lasconi, has already declared that even “if, after the recount, it is determined that I have more votes than Ms. Lasconi,” he will not participate in the runoff. Ciolacu accused the liberal leader of publicly smearing him with “all kinds of lies.” Hardly the best premise to heed the call for unity against the far right: “It will be very difficult for me to answer the phone when Ms. Lasconi calls me\u00a0<\/strong>because she will need every vote to defeat Georgescu,” the premier admitted. If Ciolacu does not answer, Romania could face an unprecedented scenario of a moderate government keeping it\u00a0anchored to\u00a0Brussels and a head of state pulling it\u00a0towards Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliamentary elections one week after pro-Russian Georgescu’s feat in the first round of presidential elections: Social Democrats at 22.4 percent. However, together, the three far-right parties secure more than 30 percent of the vote. Lasconi, the challenger in the Dec. 8 runoff, at only 12.2 percent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":409811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[28131,25816,26475],"class_list":["post-409898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409898"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410991,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409898\/revisions\/410991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}