Romania expected to re-elect scandal-ridden left in national elections
Romanians are voting in parliamentary elections. Just a year after the prime minister stepped down in disgrace, the party that emerged from the ashes of Nicolae Ceausescu's Communist Party will probably win office again.
Polling stations in Romania opened at 0600 UTC on Sunday, with the corruption-tainted left expected to surge back into power just one year after the party's prime minister stepped down in disgrace.
The Social Democrats (PSD) - whose leader, Liviu Dragnea, was convicted of electoral fraud - appears set to win 40 percent of the vote. The center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) and the new Save Romania Union (USR) were expected to receive a combined 35-40 percent.
In 2015 a caretaker government of technocrats took over from the PSD after tens of thousands of people protested against corruption, which they said led to the deaths of 64 people in a nightclub blaze in Bucharest.
Romanians blamed corrupt officials for the tragedy, in which stage pyrotechnicians set fire to acoustic foam in the Colectiv Club, causing a deadly stampede for the only functional emergency exit.
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Pro-European Union
Euroskepticism largely skipped Romania despite a European backlash against austerity campaigns following the 2008 financial crisis.
"Romanian public opinion is one of the most pro-European states, because of a total lack of confidence in domestic institutions and politicians," said Sergiu Miscoiu, political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj.
"Salvation comes from abroad, and western Europe has a standard of organization and prosperity Romanians still cannot reach," he said. "Outside of a very small audience, public euroscepticism wouldn't benefit any party."
http://www.dw.com/en/romania-expected-to-re-elect-scandal-ridden-left-in-national-elections/a-36724765
