Marcel Ciolacu resigned as Romanian prime minister on Monday, a day after the ruling big tent coalition candidate Crin Antonescu failed to secure a spot in the presidential election runoff.
Ciolacu already offered his resignation last December after not qualifying for the second round of the embattled, cancelled elections, which saw ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu come from nowhere to win the first round. Â
On Sunday, the big tent coalition — which included Ciolacu’s centre-left PSD, liberal party PNL and the Hungarian minority party UDMR/RMDSZ — failed to inspire Romanians to back Antonescu in the first round of the presidential vote repeat after the unprecedented scandal of the annulled elections in December, caused significant upheaval within the bloc.
The PSD’s current crop of ministers has decided to leave the government together with Ciolacu, following accusations that they did not do enough to help Antonescu secure the top position.
By Sunday night, the liberals had already blamed the PSD for not doing enough to mobilise their voters across the country, especially in rural areas, to throw their weight behind Antonescu.
According to Euronews Romania sources, PNL asked the sitting prime minister to resign in favour of interim President Ilie Bolojan, further fracturing the alliance.
On Sunday evening, nationalist candidate George Simion won the first round of Romania’s presidential election with some 40.5% of the vote.
In a late-night political thriller, the official count saw the outsider independent candidate Nicușor Dan come into second place and the run-off, knocking Antonescu out of the race — a result shocking the traditional political establishment in the EU and NATO member state.
Pre-election polls all favoured Simion to win the first round. However, the result by Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, sent a clear message to the ruling coalition, which rallied behind Antonescu as the main party’s candidate.
On Monday, PSD decided not to back either of the two candidates in the runoff. Meanwhile, PNL announced it voted unanimously to support Dan in the vote, which was set to be held in two weeks’ time.
