Romania Opposition Chiefs Quit After Poll Flop

Crin Antonescu, head of Romania's main opposition National Liberal Party, PNL, on Monday announced that he would resign from his post after the party failed to win over voters in last weekend's European Parliament elections.

The party vice-presidents also resigned from their positions.

However, the current leadership will remain in office until the next congress of the party, which is likely in July.

Before the elections, Antonescu said he would quit his post if the party did not get at least 20 per cent of the votes.

Results announced on Monday showed it fell well short of that goal, obtaining just under 15 per cent of the votes, which entitles it to five or six seats in the European Parliament.

In a related development, the PNL has decided to drop its affiliation to the Liberal grouping in the European assembly and join the centre-right bloc, the European’s People Party, EPP.

Antonescu said that the PNL wanted to decrease the possibility of the next European Commission being led by a left-winger, and there was more “doctrinal compatibility” between the PNL and the centre-right EPP.

The move is a blow to the Liberal ALDE bloc, which currently has 72 MEPs and is the third largest group in the European Parliament, following the EPP, with 212 MEPs, and the Socialists, with 187 MEPs.

In February, the PNL quit the current ruling coalition in Romania of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, with which it won the 2012 election.

Antonescu was expected to be the PNL’s candidate for the next Romanian presidential elections, due in November. The party is now likely to select a new candidate.