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Romanian Pro-EU Parties Vow Swift Deal after Election Chaos

A European Union flag lays in front of the Parliament building in Bucharest, Romania. Photographer: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images (Daniel Mihailescu/Photographer: Daniel Mihailescu/)

(Bloomberg) -- Romania’s pro-European parties pledged to move quickly to form a new government to keep the far-right out of power and to call fresh presidential elections after the previous ballot was annulled.

The four parties and a group of lawmakers from ethnic minorities will start talks on a new governing program as early as Wednesday, outlining what’s needed to tackle European Union’s widest deficit and enable a faster absorption of EU recovery funding, according to party leaders. President Klaus Iohannis scheduled the new parliament’s first session for Dec. 20.

The Black Sea country was thrown into political turmoil following a constitutional court decision on Friday to cancel the result of the first round of the presidential vote amid allegations that Russian meddling enabled the shock victory of little-known fringe candidate Calin Georgescu.

The government must undertake “a reduction in public spending, administrative reforms and a reform of the institutions that failed in the last weeks, meaning the intelligence services,” said Dominic Fritz, one of the leaders of the reformist pro-European party Save Romania Union.

The shock outcome of the first presidential round, coupled with a surge of far-right parties in a separate parliamentary ballot on Dec. 1, prompted the pro-EU parties to join forces to keep nationalist groups away from power. 

Despite their often divergent positions, the parties agreed to consider backing a joint candidate in presidential elections, according to a statement sent late Tuesday. The vote is unlikely to be held before next March or April, after the new government is in place. 

The previous two ruling parties — the Social Democrats and the Liberals — had considered a future coalition before the annulment of the presidential ballot. They proposed an alliance with the Save Romania Union alongside a party of ethnic Hungarians and a group of minority lawmakers. The move would give them a solid majority in the next parliament.

The next government will have its work cut out. Romania is expected to have the EU’s widest budget deficit this year. The gap has already exceeded the official annual target at the end of November, totaling 7.1% of gross domestic product, according to local news outlet profit.ro. 

It will also have to fend off inflation and revitalize a slowing economy. The current government managed to win a reprieve from the European Commission to narrow the deficit toward EU levels within seven years instead of the usual four, according to outgoing Finance Minister Marcel Bolos. 

The talks will focus on the governing program first, followed by negotiations over the structure of the government, Save Romania Union’s Fritz said. 

“We’re going into the talks to figure out if we indeed have a common vision, to see whether the parties really understood the message from the voters,” Fritz said.

 

--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski.

(Details of new parliament in second paragraph, details on the budget and economy from eighth.)

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