Ciolacu, 57, said that his center-left Social Democratic Party (PSD) would withdraw from the pro-Western coalition – effectively ending it – while cabinet ministers will stay on in an interim capacity until a new majority emerges after the presidential run-off. The Social Democrats had formed a coalition government with the centrist Liberals and ethnic Hungarian UDMR to help keep the European Union and NATO state on a pro-Western course.
“We saw how Romanians voted on Sunday (ed. May 4), which means that the ruling coalition has no legitimacy, at least in this formula,” Ciolacu told reporters after a PSD meeting.
Following the runoff election on 18 May, 2025 the newly elected president will begin negotiations with parliamentary parties to form a new governing coalition.
Ciolacu resigned a day after far-right opposition and populist leader, George Simion, gained the most votes, 40.5%, in the first round of the presidential election, a rerun of the original vote from last year. Simion will face off against pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan, in the May 18 runoff, who received a 20.9% share of the vote.
Simion has repeatedly pledged to bring former pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu – barred from running in the current election – into power if he becomes president. Georgescu had won last November’s first round, which was annulled by the courts after allegations of Russian interference on social media and campaign fraud.
Although Ciolacu’s leftist PSD won the most seats in a December 1, 2024 parliamentary election, Simion’s Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and two other far-right groupings, one with overt pro-Russian sympathies, won more than a third of the seats to become a clear political force.