Loss For Romania’s Social Democrats Is A Win For Europe’s Left

Romania’s presidential election last month served as an important litmus test of popular support for the main parties but did not alter the domestic power structures of the country.

Victory for incumbent President Klaus Iohannis of the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) over a former prime minister from the once all-mighty Social Democratic Party (PSD) was a symptom — not a cause — of the decay of the PSD.

In contrast, the toppling of the PSD government by a vote of no confidence in October sent reverberations through politics — both at home and across the EU.

In addition to forcing the Romanian political left from executive power, it deprived the European Socialists and Democrats (S&D) — the European Parliament’s second-largest political family, of which PSD is a member — of important positions in European institutions.