Four parties in the Romanian Parliament announced their “firm commitment” to form a “pro-European” government on December 10.

The four parties are the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) that made up the “grand coalition” before the December 1 general election, with the addition of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), reformist Union Save Romania (USR) and representatives of ethnic minorities. The chances are the new ruling coalition will be a mildly adjusted form of the former ruling coalition, despite the weaker scores received by the Social Democrats and the Liberals and voters’ frustration with rising corruption and the dysfunctional judiciary. 

The four parties initially came together after the shock lead taken in the first round of the presidential election — which has since been cancelled — by obscure far-right, pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu, and the strong performance of far-right parties in the general election. 

The four parties’ statement on December 10 is a weaker form of the agreement signed last week by the same parties, before the presidential election runoff was due to take place – when the coalition was announced as already accomplished.

This time, the parties announced that talks to draw up a joint ruling strategy will begin “in the immediate days”. The success of the negotiations is thus not guaranteed in any way. Depending on the negotiations, some parties may be left out of the coalition and reformist USR is reportedly the first on the list.

The four parties also agreed that the new government will set the calendar for the repeated presidential elections – which de facto defers indefinitely the procedure for appointing a new head of state. The Constitutional Court has confirmed President Klaus Iohannis’ announcement that he will in office as long as it takes, until a new president gets sworn in.

Separately, in ambiguous wording, the four parties agreed to back “a possible sole presidential candidate” when the presidential election takes place,