Romania’s junior ruling coalition party, the Alliance of European Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), headed by Senate president Calin Popescu Tariceanu, announced its withdrawal from ALDE Europe.

“ALDE Romania has decided to withdraw from ALDE Europe. The decision was formally communicated to the ALDE Europe,” officials of the party confirmed for Hotnews.ro.

The decision came as Tariceanu’s party was anyway close to exclusion from ALDE Europe for having backed the Social Democratic Party - PSD’s efforts to change the justice laws and thus weaken the rule of law, Hotnews.ro commented.

The move opens the door for the membership of the USR-PLUS alliance, which expressed their intention to join the ALDE Europe group in the European Parliament. ALDE Europe president Guy Verhofstadt attended the last rally organized by USR-PLUS before the elections for the European Parliament on May 26.

The USR-PLUS alliance received a score close to that of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD) namely nearly 22.4%. Meanwhile, ALDE only got 4.1% of the votes and failed to get representation in the new European Parliament.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Calin Popescu Tariceanu)