Romanian leftists ahead in parliamentary race, poll shows, coalition partner slides

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's ruling leftist Social Democrats would get most votes in a Dec. 1 parliamentary election, with a far right opposition party leapfrogging the centre-right Liberals into second place, a survey showed on Wednesday.

European Union and NATO member Romania holds a two-round presidential contest on Nov. 24 and Dec. 8, with a parliamentary election scheduled in between, on Dec. 1.

The survey conducted by pollster INSCOP on behalf of daily newspaper Libertatea showed that 30.2% of Romanians would vote for the Social Democrat Party (PSD) while only 13.2% would vote for their coalition partner, the centre-right Liberals.

The Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), a hard right opposition party founded five years ago which opposes military aid for Ukraine would rank second with 21.4% of votes.

Opposition centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) would secure 12.7% of votes. The survey was conducted between Oct. 11-18 and has a margin of error of 3.2%.

The Social Democrats and the Liberals, which formed a grand coalition government in late 2021, ran on joint lists in the June election for European Parliament, securing 48.6% of votes.

They had separate candidates in local polls held on the same day, where the Social Democrats won 37.6% of votes and the Liberals 32.3%.

Since then, tensions have mounted in the coalition as both party leaders are running for president, with Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu expected to advance to the second round.

A controversial top court decision to bar a far right politician from running for president further fuelled discontent.

Before the escalating tensions, the two parties were widely expected to continue in a coalition after the parliamentary election. Ciolacu has ruled out forming a government with AUR.

The incoming government will need to redouble efforts to lower the European Union member's gaping budget deficit and enforce reforms needed to keep billions of euros of EU recovery funds coming.

Earlier this month, a survey by pollster CURS  showed the PSD winning 31% of the vote in December's parliamentary election, ahead of the centre-right Liberals with 20%, AUR with 18% and USR with 15%.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Christina Fincher)