Romanian pro-European parties agree to form coalition government

Parties also considering supporting single candidate in re-run of annulled presidential election

Romania’s pro-European parties have reached a commitment to form a governing majority that cordons off the hard right and potentially endorses a single candidate for a rerun of the country’s annulled presidential election.

The ruling leftist Social Democrats won the most seats in the parliamentary election on 1 December, which also resulted in three ultranationalist and hard-right groupings, some with overt pro-Russian sympathies, winning more than a third of seats.