Romanian Prime Minister Steps Down, Exits Coalition after Nationalist Election Triumph

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has resigned and his Social Democrat party is to leave the government after a right-wing nationalist candidate won the first round of the presidential election.

George Simion, a eurosceptic who has promised to put Romania first, won 40.9 percent of Sunday's vote and is expected to win a run-off vote on 18 May. He will face liberal Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, who narrowly defeated the Social Democrat (PSD) candidate.

Sunday's result plunged Romania - an EU state on Nato's eastern flank - into further political turmoil. Ciolacu told colleagues that as their coalition had failed to meet its objective and "has no legitimacy", they should pull out of the government. Ciolacu, 57, had only come to power in a pro-EU coalition after elections in 2024, although George Simion's far-right party along with two other groupings had attracted a third of the vote.

The parties in that coalition had been holding emergency meetings on Monday to decide on their next steps. Simion's victory on Sunday was largely driven by popular frustration at the annulment of presidential elections late last year. His likely success on 18 May is awaited nervously in European capitals, as well as in Kyiv. He has said he wants an EU of strong, sovereign nations and his party has opposed supply weapons to Ukraine. Ciolacu is now expected to submit his resignation to interim president Ilie Bolojan, who will then appoint a caretaker prime minister. Bolojan himself took on the role of interim president last February because of the scandal surrounding the annulment of the presidential vote.

George Simion, 38, has cast himself as an admirer of US President Donald Trump. He became presidential frontrunner earlier this year when far-right pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu was barred from running. Simion did particularly well with Romania's diaspora voters, polling more than 73 percent in Spain and almost 65 percent in the UK among a broadly blue-collar electorate. Public resentment at Romanian financial support for Ukrainian refugees has been a central plank in Simion's campaign, though he denies he is pro-Russian.

"Russia is the biggest danger towards Romania, Poland and the Baltic states, the problem is this war is not going anywhere," he told the BBC.