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.

Far-right EU critic George Simion topped Sunday’s election first round, while the ruling coalition’s candidate narrowly lost out to Bucharest’s mayor, Nicusor Dan, for the second spot.

With the ruling coalition’s candidate Crin Antonescu knocked out of the running, Ciolacu would likely have been replaced by the new president, who appoints the premier.

Ciolacu said his party would leave the ruling coalition but would probably hold on until after the election run-off, scheduled for May 18 and which is being closely watched by Brussels and Washington.

Romania, which borders war-torn Ukraine, is an EU and NATO member.

His Social Democrats (PSD) party leaving the ruling coalition “implicitly leads to my resignation as prime minister”, Ciolacu, 57, told reporters after a party meeting.

“We saw how Romanians voted yesterday (Sunday), which means that the ruling coalition has no legitimacy, at least in this formula,” he added.

Once the PSD leaves the governing coalition, it would no longer have a parliamentary majority.

Ciolacu said that his party’s ministers would discuss with their coalition partners whether or not they would remain in the government on an interim basis.

“The future president would have changed me anyway,” Ciolacu said.

– ‘Worst possible moment’ –

Ciolacu’s resignation “comes at the worst possible moment, adding political risks and fears” in a country already struggling with the highest deficit in the EU, 9.3 percent at the end of 2024, according to political analyst Radu Magdin.

“The political system will re-stabilise after we have political clarity as regards the new president of Romania,” Magdin told AFP, adding that the resignation “gives a boost to Simion who is better than Dan at capitalising on political chaos”.

Ciolacu said his party would not publicly support either Simion or Dan, instead asking their party supporters to “vote as they wish, according to their own conscience”.

The Social Democrats’ coalition partners said they were supporting Dan.

In Sunday’s first round, Simion, who leads the nationalist AUR party, gained almost 41 percent of votes, double the score of the pro-EU Dan, an independent.

Dan narrowly edged out Antonescu.

AUR and other far right parties hold around a third of the votes in parliament.

Ciolacu has ruled out forming a government with AUR as long as he is party president.

– Trump fan –

A far-right victory in the second round could mark a shift in the country’s foreign policy. The president represents Romania at EU and NATO summits and can veto EU votes.

Campaigning on a vow to put Romania first, 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 presidential 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”. Georgescu was barred from the rerun but two major far-right parties decided to back Simion instead.

ani/jza/bc