In a twist echoing the shock 2024 Moldovan election, where Maia Sandu clinched an improbable last-minute victory, Romania’s president-elect Nicuşor Dan faces a turbulent mandate from day one, according to Euractiv.
Dan’s unexpected win, confirmed after a fraught electoral process, left analysts drawing parallels to Sandu’s rise, a triumph defying polls and political norms. However, unlike Sandu’s clear reformist momentum, Dan inherits a fractured parliament, a looming economic crisis, and a resurgent populist bloc, ensuring no post-election respite.
Following Sunday’s surprise result, Dan’s immediate challenge is forming a government under Romania’s interim cabinet. With no party holding a majority and the Social Democrats (PSD)—once dominant with 22% in the 2024 polls—now weakened by economic mismanagement and internal strife, coalition-building promises to be fraught.
The PSD itself stands at a crossroads. Party figures meets on Tuesday to decide whether to pivot toward populist, Eurosceptic rhetoric or maintain its centrist veneer. Interim leader Marcel Ciolacu’s fate hangs in the balance, with his ability to negotiate a coalition role critical.
Dan has floated a broad alliance including PSD, the National Liberals (PNL), Reformist USR, and Hungarian minority UDMR to share the burden of austerity measures. USR’s Dominic Fritz has backed Dan’s proposal to appoint interim president Ilie Bolojan as prime minister, but scepticism abounds.
Meanwhile, populist factions, buoyed by five million votes for firebrand George Simion, now command 32% of parliamentary seats.
