The potential electoral support enjoyed by the Social Democratic Party in Romania has increased constantly during the second half of 2021, particularly since the beginning of the political turmoil within the center-right coalition formed by the Liberals (PNL) and the reformist party USR.

In contrast, the partners of the former ruling coalition (PNL and USR) have both lost ground, according to the latest Avangarde poll quoted by G4media.ro.

Thus, PSD leads in the latest poll conducted between November 16-24 with 40% of the voting intentions (+6pp from July). The Social Democrats, who now dominate the ruling alliance, are thus more than twice more popular than the Liberals (17%, -6pp from July).

Radical party AUR (15% in the latest poll) increases its advance versus reformist USR (11%), while the ethnic Hungarians’ party UDMR maintains its typical 5% score.

The ranking of the most credible politicians follows the party scores: the first three most credible are members of the Social Democratic Party: Alexandru Rafila (37% positive opinions) and Marcel Ciolacu (30%), Gabriela Firea (28%).

President Iohannis (17%) dropped under the radical AUR leader George Simion (19%) - which fares on par with the prime minister Nicolae Ciuca, formally a member of the Liberal party but rather publicly identified as an independent given his previous position in the Army.

Things are certainly moving in the wrong direction, 84% of the voters polled by Avantgarde poll concluded.

(Photo: Cateyeperspective/ Dreamstime)

andrei@romania-insider.com