Socialists in Brussels need to pressure their Romanian member party to “maintain their credibility,” Greens chair says.
STRASBOURG — Europe’s Socialists have spent years scolding the center-right for cutting deals with the far right. Now they are facing the same charge.
When Romania’s Social Democrats (PSD) on Monday teamed up with the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) to topple Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and the centrist coalition government they had previously backed, lawmakers in Brussels said the center left is doing what exactly what it has long accused the center-right European People’s Party of: enabling the forces it has vowed to isolate.
If PSD topples the government and strikes a coalition with AUR, “they would be crossing a red line they themselves have set in Europe: refusing political cooperation with extremist forces,” Vula Tsetsi, chair of the European Green Party, said.
The move exposes a gap between political red lines in Brussels and messy national realities, where the far right’s rise is making it harder for mainstream parties to govern without them.
Socialists in Brussels were unaware of the plans in Romania, according to two officials familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak frankly. Iratxe García, chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), told POLITICO she expects its Romanian peers to work with pro-European forces in future.
The 2024 EU election produced the most right-wing Parliament in the bloc’s history. The far-right Patriots group — home to France’s Marine Le Pen and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán — became the third-largest force, followed by the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes France’s Giorgia Meloni, Poland’s Law and Justice, and the AUR.
Across Europe, populist right-wing parties are gaining ground as voters turn to them amid a cost-of-living squeeze and migration pressures. Mainstream conservatives have increasingly worked with them in countries including the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Croatia and Austria, infuriating center-left parties that accused the EPP of normalizing the far right during the 2024 EU election campaign.
The co-chair of the ECR group in the European Parliament, Patryk Jaki, told POLITICO that it is “obvious” his political forces can no longer be ignored.
But that growing influence is now creating problems for Europe’s Socialists, as some of their own members start making deals to the right. In 2025, Lithuania’s Social Democrats struck a coalition agreement with Dawn of Nemunas, a party reportedly planning to join the Patriots group in Brussels.
The Party of European Socialists did not publicly criticize the move. Half a year later, NGOs warned PES and the S&D group (PES’s arm in the European Parliament) in an open letter that planned public media reforms by Lithuania’s Social Democrats and their coalition partner would undermine media freedom. The signatories urged PES and S&D to determine whether its Lithuanian member is complying with core Social Democratic values and to clearly lay out the actions it would undertake if those values are being violated.
The Party of European Socialists did not respond to a request for comment.
A growing headache
While the Lithuania alliance drew limited attention in Brussels, Romania — as a larger country — is harder to ignore. With an S&D member party teaming up with the far right in Bucharest, other political groups are pressing the Socialists to explain where they draw the line.
“The Party of European Socialists and the S&D Group need to keep the pressure to their member party in Romania in order to maintain their credibility when criticising cooperation between the EPP and the far right at European level,” the Greens’ Tsetsi said.
Terry Reintke, a senior German lawmaker who chairs the Green parliamentary faction in the Parliament, said the Social Democrats have “always been strong allies in the long-standing fight for the cordon sanitaire.”
But she cautioned that “progressives lose when power is handed to the far right, one should never be tempted by power if the price is a coalition with the enemy of democracy.”
EPP chair Manfred Weber called for “everyone to behave responsibly” in Bucharest to ensure government stability.
Siegfried Mureșan, a senior Romanian EPP lawmaker, told POLITICO he is wary of the Social Democrats’ long-term intentions and predicted future cooperation between PSD and AUR.
“By empowering AUR and by validating their anti-establishment, anti-European narrative and actions, the Romanian political landscape will be polarized between a pro-reform camp led by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, and an anti-European camp around AUR, with the socialists only playing a marginal role in the Romanian political landscape in future years, as they already do in several other EU member states,” Mureșan said.
Valérie Hayer, chair of the liberal Renew Europe group, endorsed Bolojan’s pro-European coalition, telling Romanian TV on Monday evening: “It is irresponsible to align with those who undermine democracy, who undermine Romania, and who undermine Europe — those who are not aligned with our values, who question science, and who have Vladimir Putin as their closest ally.”
Socialists play down concerns
European Socialists have so far avoided publicly rebuking their Romanian member party.
“I reaffirm my trust in the [Romanian] Social Democratic Party and its commitment to working with all pro-European forces,” S&D chair García told POLITICO. “This principle is non-negotiable and lies at the very core of our political family.”
García noted that Sorin Grindeanu, the president of Romania’s Social Democrats, has pledged not to enter a political agreement with AUR.
“I also note that it was the [PSD] that decided to leave the government,” García said. “The decision to support a motion of censure against the Bolojan government is consistent with that choice to withdraw from governing.”
Four Social Democrat lawmakers who spoke to POLITICO downplayed the Romanian party’s move. They said that while the situation was not ideal, the cordon sanitaire is mainly intended for the EU level rather than national politics. They also argued that AUR’s membership of the right-wing ECR group makes it a more acceptable partner than parties in the more extreme Patriots group.