Romania elections: Left wing PSD set for landslide victory in Parliament, according to exit-polls | New political party USR gets third place

The first exit-polls from the general elections that took place on Sunday in Romania show that the left wing party PSD got around 45 percent of the votes, while the liberals came second with little over 20 percent.

On the third place came the newly formed Union to Save Romania (USR), led by Nicusor Dan, which has around 8-10 percent.

Dan said it was an “incredible win” for a party that was founded six months ago. USR was launched shortly after Dan failed to win the elections for mayor of Bucharest with the Union to Save Bucharest (USB) party this June.

The USR supports the country’s efforts of tackling corruption, but the party does not have a clear political ideology and Dan, the former head of an NGO, has refrained from calling his party as being left wing, centrist or right wing.

Meanwhile, the president of PNL, Alina Gorghiu, said that her party did not abandon the “project Dacian Ciolos”. The liberals promised during the campaign that they would support Ciolos to remain PM in the new government if they secured a majority in Parliament.

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Both USR and PNL said they wanted Ciolos to be PM after the elections, but their efforts could prove to be in vain considering that their prospects to secure the new majority look slim at this moment.

If Ciolos does not remain in government, he could become the new head of the PNL. Earlier this week, he said that he was still thinking at such a move.

The union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and ALDE, the party co-founded by the Senate head, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, were also set to get into the new Parliament, according to exit-polls. It was not clear if PMP, the party led by former president Traian Basescu, would get enough votes to get into Parliament.

Liviu Dragnea, the head of the PSD, did not say who will be the party’s proposal as the new PM, but he explained that Romania will maintain all its international strategic and economic partnerships and that his party aims to enhance the economic side of these deals.

According to the IRES exit-poll, PSD got 45.9 percent of the votes for Senate and 45.8 percent at the Chamber of Deputies. In the CURS/Avangarde exit-poll, the social-democrat have 45.2 percent at the Senate and 45.5 percent at the Chamber of Deputies.

New PM after elections

President Klaus Iohannis said recently that he will not propose a PM that has any kind of issues with the law. For instance, Dragnea has a suspended jail sentence in a case involving election fraud and is on trial in a separate corruption case.

Former PM Victor Ponta said during the campaign that Dragnea, alongside former minister of finance, Eugen Teodorovici, and the former minister of labor, Rovana Plumb, could be PSD’s proposals as head of PM.

However, Dragnea rejected Ponta’s claim adding that the former head of the government was speaking only for himself and that the party did not decide who will be the next PM.

On Sunday evening, the head of PSD said that the current deputy PM Vasile Dincu, is not the party’s proposal as head of the new government.

The new head of the government has to be vetted by MPs through a common vote of both chambers of parliament. The president of Romania can call for early elections if the proposed PM is turned down by the Parliament twice.

The turnout on today’s elections was 39.49 percent. In Bucharest, this figure stood at 41.6 percent. More than 18 million Romanians were expected at the voting polls today.

Ovidiu Posirca