Romania PM resigns after far-right wins first-round of president vote

Bucharest: Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned on Monday, a day after a far-right opposition leader won the first round of the presidential election re-run and his own candidate crashed out of the race.

Ciolacu said his centre-left Socialists would withdraw from the pro-Western coalition - effectively ending it - while cabinet ministers will stay on in an interim capacity until a new majority emerges after the presidential run-off.

Hard-right eurosceptic George Simion decisively swept the ballot on Sunday, with some 41per cent of votes, and will face Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan, an independent centrist, in a May 18 run-off. Coalition candidate Crin Antonescu came third.

Although Ciolacu's leftist Social Democrats (PSD) won the most seats in a Dec 1 parliamentary election, Simion's AUR and two other far-right groupings, one with overt pro-Russian sympathies, won more than a third of the seats to become a clear political force.

The Social Democrats had formed a coalition government with the centrist Liberals and ethnic Hungarian UDMR to help keep the European Union and NATO state on a pro-Western course. A governing majority that cordons off the far right in the legislature cannot be formed without it.

"This coalition is no longer legitimate," Ciolacu told reporters after a party meeting. "The next president was going to replace me anyway, that's what I've read."

Romania already has an interim president until the May 18 run-off. The country has the EU's largest budget deficit and risks a ratings downgrade to below investment level unless it enforces a decisive fiscal correction.

A Simion victory could isolate Romania, erode private investment and destabilise NATO's eastern flank, where Bucharest plays a key role in providing logistical support to Ukraine as it fights a three-year-old Russian invasion, political observers say.

It would also expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders in the European Union that already includes the Hungarian and Slovak prime ministers at a time when Europe is struggling to formulate its response to US President Donald Trump.