Romanian Prime Minister social democrat Marcel Çolaku announced that he supports the candidate of the opposition "Union for the Salvation of Romania". Elena Lasconi at the second round of the presidential elections, which will take place on December 8, Reuters reported, quoted by BNR.
Cholaku came third in the first round of the presidential race and announced his resignation as leader of the Social Democrats. But his Social Democratic Party won the most votes in last Sunday's parliamentary elections and the declared support boosts Lasconi's chances.
In the second round of the presidential elections, Elena Lasconi will face the winner of the first round - the far-right independent candidate Calin Georgescu.
In an interview with Reuters today, Georgescu said that if elected, he would stop the export of arms to Ukraine, as well as the export of Ukrainian grain through the port of Constanta.
Yesterday Marcel Çolaku met with Elena Lasconi, as well as with the leaders of the National Liberal Party (NLP), the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (DSUR) and representatives of national minorities.
After the meeting, the temporary chairman of the NLP, Ilie Bolozhan, stated that the SDP, NLP, DSUR and the national minorities, in their capacity as pro-European political formations, have agreed to form a coalition, Agerpress reported.
"Today we agreed on the formation of a future coalition that will ensure the stability of the government and implement concrete measures to modernize Romania for the benefit of all citizens," said Bolozhan.
In parliamentary elections on December 1, the SDP came first with over 22 percent of the vote, followed by the nationalist Alliance for the Reunification of Romanians (AUR) with around 18 percent, the center-right NLP with around 13 percent and the SSR with 12 percent.
Two more far-right and nationalist parties enter the parliament - SOS Romania and the Party of Young People (POT), respectively with 7 and 6 percent, as well as the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (DSUR) with 6 percent.
Romanian presidential runoff front-runner Calin Georgescu has gained massive support on the social media platform TikTok through coordinated profiles, content recommendation algorithms and paid promotions, Romanian intelligence claims.
In documents declassified today by the authorities in Bucharest, it is stated that the country has been subject to "aggressive hybrid attacks" from Russia in the course of several consecutive election campaigns.