Romanian nationalists defeated in EU assembly vote
The Romanian centrist opposition party has won the country's elections for the European parliament, while the nationalist Greater Romania party will be completely pushed out of the European assembly, exit polls show.
On Sunday (25 November), the first elections ever for the European Parliament were held in the country, which joined the EU together with Bulgaria in January of this year.
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According to an exit poll by TNS CSOP made late Sunday for Realitatea TV, the centrist opposition party got the most votes, with the ruling liberal party slipped down in the polls compared to its national record.
Prime minister Calin Tariceanu's ruling Liberal Party won around 15.2% of the votes, a few percentage points higher than expected, coming in at third place.
The centrist Democrat Party of President Traian Basescu came in at 31.5% of the votes, according to the exit poll, making it the largest party in Romania.
The Social Democratic Party (PSD) looked set to end second with an estimated 21.1%.
The nationalist Greater Romania party, which currently holds five of the country's 35 seats in the European Parliament, won only an estimated 3% of the votes.
Two weeks ago, the party came under the media spotlight when its members left the far-right Identity, Tradition Sovereignty (ITS) group after a dispute linked to recent immigration tensions in Italy, leading to the collapse of the group.
Analysts say the electoral slip can be explained by the growing number of Romanians that are dissatisfied with the slowing pace of reforms.
The European Commission is threatening to withhold a portion of its farm payments if Romania does not reform its farm payments system by mid-December.
On several occasions, Brussels expressed concern that corruption is still rampant in the country.
A referendum on domestic electoral reform held simultaneously with the European Parliament election, is likely to fail, despite projections of overwhelming support, because turnout needs to be at least 50% of the population eligible to vote.
According to the electoral office, turnout was around 27% two hours before voting ended.
As part of their EU accession terms, Romania and Bulgaria were obliged to hold elections to the European Parliament this year. Bulgaria elected its 18 MEPs on 20 May.