(Bloomberg) -- Romania’s ruling coalition collapsed after a junior party quit the formation in a blow to Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, who’s been trying to improve her party’s image after her predecessor was jailed for corruption.
The ALDE coalition party said on Monday it’s leaving after three years of ruling with the Social Democrats amid rising disagreements over the governing program, policy and a refusal to agree to restructure the cabinet. Relations also soured after Dancila decided to run for the post of the nation’s president on Nov. 10, crushing plans of ALDE’s leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu to stand.
The prime minister vowed to stay in power and seek support from ALDE and other lawmakers who “understand that running away” isn’t a solution for Romania, according to her Facebook post. Hours later, the visibly upset premier told reporters that “we’ll try to negotiate with parties and lawmakers to get a majority, we’ll use all options available.”
Yet her government, which now lacks majority support in parliament, may face a no-confidence motion already within weeks as the opposition parties want to oust her from office.
Finding a new ruling coalition arrangement will “significantly constrain the government’s ability to push legislation through parliament,” said Otilia Dhand, a London-based analyst at Teneo Intelligence. “A minority cabinet would also struggle to survive until the general election scheduled in late 2020.”
Jailed Predecessor
The 55-year-old Dancila took over the party in June, just a month after her predecessor Liviu Dragnea was jailed. She quickly sought to soothe ties with the European Union by abandoning a controversial policy agenda similar ones that landed Hungary and Poland in hot water with the bloc.
On Monday, Tariceanu announced that his party will back independent candidate and actor Mircea Diaconu for president. Opinion polls show President Klaus Iohannis, who’s often clashed with the ruling parties over their past rule-of-law breaches, on course to win re-election.
“We can no longer vouch for measures that we don’t agree with,” Tariceanu said of the collapse of the coalition. “It’s fairer today to say good-bye.”
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