Social Democrats riding the crest of a wave in Romania

Local elections were held in Romania five months ahead of the parliamentary election which was expected to put an end to the rule of the technocrat cabinet led by Dacian Ciolos. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) won the largest number of the seats in commune and province councils (almost 38%) and achieved a historic victory in Bucharest, where the public usually supports the political right. The centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) scored the second best result on the scale of the country as a whole (nearly 32%). It did, however, sustain a total defeat in the capital, since it was outpaced by the local grouping led by Nicusor Dan, a local activist who criticises the Romanian political class as a whole. As usual, Transylvania voted for centre-right and Hungarian minority parties, while the regions in the south and east of the country backed the political left. The turnout was 48% (56% in the previous election).

ESO: Background information: Romanian local elections, June 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/romanian-local-elections-june-2016/

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