The Romanians are called to the polls today for the parliamentary electionsin which the extreme right expected to post big gains after a chaotic week and the possible victory of the far-right candidate in the presidential election Kalin Gheorgescu which would signal a policy change for the EU and NATO member country.

Today, a national anniversary in Romania, the polling stations opened at 07:00 (local and Greek time) and will close at 21:00. Exit polls will be published shortly.

After three decades in which the country’s political life was shaped around two major parties, analysts predict a fragmented parliament and difficult negotiations to form a government.

OR extreme rightdivided into several parties which have in common their opposition to support for it Ukraineappears to be winning 30% of the vote.

Such a rise of the far right has not been seen in Romania since the fall of communism in 1989, but the anger of the country’s 19 million people is growing in the face of economic hardship and the war raging across the border.

Moreover, last Sunday, the far-right Gheorgescu scored a surprise victory in the first presidential election. A poll conducted this week shows his party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), with a narrow lead over the ruling Social Democratic party.

The rise of far-right parties, following an election campaign dominated by public concern about the country’s economic situation and the cost of living, could completely change Romania’s pro-Western orientation and undermine the country’s support for Ukraine, they say. analysts.

“The people who voted for Gheorgescu don’t realize that we’re actually talking about a complete change of course,” commented political scientist Cristian Pirbulescu.

Week of turmoil

His unexpected victory Georgescu last Sunday raised suspicions of interference in the election campaign by Russia. In addition, the conservative candidate in the presidential elections, Cristian Teres, appealed to the Constitutional Court requesting the annulment of the vote, with the court requesting a recount of the votes. Tomorrow, Monday, the Constitutional Court is expected to announce whether it will request the annulment of the result of the first round of the presidential elections.

All this means that Romanians are going to vote in the parliamentary elections today without knowing whether the results of the first round of the presidential elections stand.

They also do not know whether the second round – scheduled for December 8 between Gheorgescu and centrist Elena Lasconi – will go ahead as normal or be postponed.

For him Septimius Parvoscoordinator of the Expert Forum (EFOR), there is no doubt that the decision of the Constitutional Court “undermines the confidence” of Romanians in the institutions and may “fuel” the extreme right.

“We have had vote recounts in the past in Romania as well, but not millions of votes and with parliamentary elections being held in the meantime,” he added, speaking of an “unprecedented situation.”

An AtlasIntel poll conducted Nov. 26-28 shows the far-right AUR with 22.4 percent of the vote, with outgoing Prime Minister Marcel Tsiolakou’s Social Democrats on 21.4 percent, down 10 percentage points from two weeks earlier. Lasconi’s centrist party, the Union Save Romania, gathered 17.5%. The poll did not take into account the decision to recount the votes of the first round of the presidential election.

Change of course?

Last Sunday’s big losers, the Social Democrats and Liberals in the governing coalition, are now putting forward their “experience” in an attempt to limit their losses in the parliamentary elections.

In a final appeal, the outgoing, pro-European president of Romania Klaus Johannis called the elections “crucial for the direction that Romania will take in the coming years”.

Will it remain “a country of freedom”, “a modern European state” or “sink into a damaging isolation and return to a gloomy past”, this is “the existential choice we are faced with”, he warned.

Either way, Romania’s next government will be faced with the difficult task of reducing the country’s budget deficit. Romania has the highest proportion of EU citizens at risk of poverty, with large areas of the country in need of investment.

“We have developed the country unevenly and the greatest anger is concentrated in the peripheral areas that fall victim to the candidates who know how to appeal to them,” commented the anthropologist Bogdan Yanchu.