Central and Eastern Europe rocked by political turmoil

The region has seen some exciting yet far from benevolent turn of events, writes Cristian Gherasim, Bucharest correspondent.

Austria has seen Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigning following corruption accusations. The announcement came days after prosecutors began a criminal investigation into allegations he used public money to pay off pollsters and journalists for favorable coverage.

The allegations relate to the period between 2016 and 2018, when funds from the Ministry of Finance were allegedly used to manipulate opinion polls in favor of his party. At that time, Sebastian Kurz was not yet chancellor, but he was part of the Government. According to prosecutors, a media group allegedly "received money" in exchange for these popularity polls. That group referred to is, according to the Austrian press, the tabloid Österreich.

One of Europe’s youngest leaders, Kurz became the leader of the Austrian Conservative Party in May 2017 and led his party to victory in the elections later that year, becoming, at the age of 31, one of the youngest democratically elected heads of government. He has been replaced by Alexander Schallenberg as Austria’s Chancellor.

In neighboring Czech Republic, Prime Minister Babis surprisingly loses the elections in front of a progressive, pro-European coalition. One of the alliance's parties is the Pirate Party, founded in 2009. Babis appeared this week in the Pandora Papers, with 20 million euros put in undeclared offshore to buy a castle in France. For the first time in 30 years, the Czech Communist Party will not be in parliament, failing to get the required 5%. The Communists supported Babis' government.

In Poland tens of thousands took to the streets in support of European Union membership after a court ruling that parts of EU law are incompatible with the constitution raised concerns the country could eventually leave the bloc.

Polish Constitutional Court ruled that some articles in EU treaties are incompatible with the country's constitution, calling into question a key principle of European integration and fueling an anti-EU rhetoric from the ruling party.

Hungary and Poland, countries led by conservative governments, have repeatedly been criticized by Brussels for violating "rule of law" and "European values".

In the south-eastern part of the continent, in Romania, the liberal government was ousted following a no-confidence vote overwhelmingly endorsed by parliament. The cabinet, led by Florin Cîţu, faced the largest coalition ever created against an incumbent government. The no-confidence motion needed 234 votes to pass, but got 281 - the largest number of votes ever recorded in Romania for such a motion. Another first for the ousted cabinet was also that two motions of no confidence were simultaneously tabled against it.

The political crises which began over a month ago, after the reformist USR party backed down from the centre-right coalition, saw not only the Social Democrat Party which tabled the motion and populist Alliance for the Union of Romanians opposition parties backing the vote, but also the Save Romania Union party (USR), a former governing coalition partner, vouching to oust Cîţu.

In post-communist Romania, over 40 motions of no confidence were tabled, 6 were adopted, making Cîțu’s cabinet the sixth dismissed following a vote of no confidence.

According to the Romanian constitution, the president will now consult parliamentary parties on appointing a new prime minister. Meanwhile, Cîţu will remain as interim PM for the next 45 days.

Dacian Ciolos, a former PM himself, was designated by president Iohannis to form a new government. The designated prime minister will request, within 10 days from the appointment, a parliamentary vote of confidence. If he fails and if two consecutive prime ministerial proposals are rejected the constitution says that the president may dissolve parliament and trigger early elections. While Cîţu's National Liberal Party hopes to get the now interim PM reappointed and back into his old job, the opposition Social Democrats want early elections.

Just 10 days before being designated to form a new government Cioloș said he was not interested in the job: "I was prime minister, but now I'm not concerned about this position. I have responsibilities in the European Parliament, I have a mandate there".

But regardless of who the next PM will be, Romania's Covid crisis is only getting worse.

Further down south, Bulgaria has been in crisis mode since this summer’s legislative elections, leaving it without a regular government for months. After dissolving the parliament, President Rumen Radev has called Bulgaria's third parliamentary election this year for Nov. 14 after inconclusive polls in April and July failed to produce a government.

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