Bitkova Tatiana Georgievna – Ph.D. in Philology, Leading Researcher, INION RAS
The article presents a general picture of the preferences of Romanian voters in the process of elections to the European Parliament in 2024. The results of those elections are compared with the results of ones in 2019, the features of the participation of Romanian parliamentarians in the previous 2019–2024 legislature are shown, assessments of their work are presented, and the tasks facing the deputies of the new convocation are identified. While the European Parliament elections in a number of leading European countries have demonstrated a significant rise in the influence of the far-right forces and Eurosceptics, the eastern part of the EU has shown nothing of the sort. Romania stands out in this case: here, as in a number of Western European countries, right-wing radicals have taken a prominent place in the preferences of voters. The coalition under the auspices of the far-right party «Alliance for the Unification of Romanians» party received almost 14,93% of the vote. The far-right party «S.O.S. Romania», which did not join the Alliance, entered the European Parliament with 5,03%. The article emphasizes that none of the newly elected Eurosceptic formations joined the European Parliament’s most radical faction, Identity and Democracy, or its successor, Patriots for Europe. In this regard, one can expect a softening of the rhetoric of the Romanian right-wing radicals in the future, but the first statements made by them after entering the European Parliament do not provide grounds for such assumptions. First place in the electoral preferences of Romanians in 2024 European Parliament elections, as in the 2019 elections, got the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, which acted in a coalition. Together with the liberal coalition United Right Alliance, they received more than 57% of the votes, which gives hope for Romania’s fruitful participation in the activities of the European Parliament and the solution of the main tasks for the country’s full entry into the economic and political realities of the European Union.
Romania, European Parliament, right-wing radicalism, liberals, social democrats, European funds, Schengen zone, eurozone
Download text