BUCHAREST: Romania’s pro-EU Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Monday announced his resignation, deepening political turmoil a day after a far-right candidate topped the first round of a tense presidential vote rerun.
EU critic George Simion topped Sunday’s first round in the EU and Nato member bordering war-torn Ukraine, while the ruling coalition’s candidate narrowly lost out to Bucharest’s mayor for the second spot.
Ciolacu’s resignation comes just two weeks before the second round scheduled for May 18, closely watched by Brussels and Washington, worsening political turmoil in the eastern European country.
“I have proposed to my colleagues to leave the governing coalition, which implicitly leads to my resignation as prime minister,” Ciolacu, 57, told reporters after a meeting of his Social Democrats party.
“We saw how Romanians voted yesterday (Sunday) which means that the ruling coalition has no legitimacy, at least in this formula,” he added.
He said that his party’s ministers would discuss with their coalition partners to decide whether they will remain in the government on an interim basis.
Simion, who leads the nationalist AUR party, gained almost 41 percent of votes, double the score of pro-EU independent Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan.
Dan narrowly edged out the ruling coalition’s candidate Crin Antonescu.
A far-right victory in the second round could mark a shift in the country’s foreign policy.
Simion, a fan of US President Donald Trump, has criticised “Brussels’ unelected bureaucrats”, accusing them of having meddled in the Romanian elections.
In December, Romania’s constitutional court scrapped the ballot after far-right politician Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round.
The annulment followed allegations of Russian interference and a massive TikTok campaign that emerged in favour of Georgescu.
Simion has called the annulment “a coup d’etat”.
