BUCHAREST (Reuters) – An ethnic Hungarian party is quitting Romania’s governing coalition in a row over cabinet posts, it said on Wednesday, further destabilising the country’s already volatile political landscape.
The UDMR has tended to serve as a bridge between the coalition’s main two parties, the leftist Social Democrats and the centre-right Liberals.
Former rivals, the two mainstream parties have a parliamentary majority without the UDMR, but they have often clashed over policy since the three-party administration took office in late 2021.
They agreed to rotate the role of prime minister when the coalition was formed, with Liberals’ leader Nicolae Ciuca taking the job first. He is now being replaced by Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu.
The UDMR had three of 22 cabinet posts under Ciuca but has none in Ciolacu’s proposed 20-strong team, which lawmakers are due to vote on on Thursday.
UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor said that meant his party could no longer be part of the coalition. “We were willing to compromise, but it seems the conditions to govern together are not met,” he said.
The government is under pressure to bring its fiscal deficit below the European Union’s 3% of gross domestic product threshold by next year, but cannot agree on the best way to achieve that.
The Liberals favour sticking with Romania’s flat tax on income, which the Social Democrats want to replace with a banded system.
Liberal Marcel Bolos, a former EU funds minister, is set to replace Social Democrat Adrian Caciu at the finance ministry in Ciolacu’s new cabinet.
Romania holds national, local and European Parliament elections in 2024.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by John Stonestreet)
