What next after coalition collapse in Romania?
In Bucharest the coalition between the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Alde) has collapsed after the two parties failed to agree on a joint candidate for the presidential elections in November. The Social Democrats - led by Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă - have said they want to continue governing. Commentators doubt that this is a viable approach.
Pride before the fall
The row between the two parties was completely unnecessary, Ziarul Financiar interjects:
“It's already clear that neither the PSD nor Alde have a candidate who will win them the presidential election. But that needn't have been a problem for either of them. They could get along fine without having to get into bed with each other for the presidential election. The two parties comfortably survived a vote of no confidence together just a month ago. They could easily have led the government until the parliamentary elections this autumn. No one would have been able to remove them. ... But because they were doing so well and didn't know what to do with themselves PSD and Alde decided to commit political suicide.”
New PM needs to focus on budget crisis
In his blog, business journalist Moise Guran does not see the continuation of the PSD government as a good solution:
“I'm not sure whether we will have a new government ahead of the presidential election. Viorica could stay in her post on an interim basis. ... But that would not be a responsible solution for Romania. Why not? Do you really believe Viorica, naive as she is and in an interim capacity, can solve the crisis we are stuck in? Do you really believe she'll use her special pension to pay off what looks to be a five-percent deficit by the end of the year? Do you see how many candidates there are besides her in the presidential election? Seven or ten? But they are only interested in this year's election, not in the looming financial crisis.”
No point in taking over power
It makes no sense for any of the parties to try to get into government now, Azonnali argues:
“The funny thing is that there's no point in anyone who wants to succeed in the upcoming three elections to make a bid for power. So we can't rule out that the parties will just let the PSD vegetate until November 2020 [when parliamentary elections are due] or at least until June 2020 [when local elections are due]. But of course we have also seen the opposition taking over government in recent years. But this is unlikely because of the bitter battle being fought right now between the national liberal PNL and the liberal USR-PLUS.”