(CN) - Romania's center-left Social Democrats on Tuesday broke a taboo against working with the far right as they maneuvered to oust a liberal-conservative prime minister pushing for the sale of state-owned companies to get the country's distressed economy on track.

After a week of rising tensions, the Social Democratic Party, the largest group in a four-way governing coalition, aligned with the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, or AUR, and filed a motion to hold a no-confidence vote for Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, a member of President Nicuor Dan's center-right National Liberal Party.

The Social Democrats, or PSD, and AUR said they had gathered enough votes from outside their parties in parliament to remove Bolojan. A vote on Bolojan's future is expected May 5.

The Social Democrats soured on the prime minister's economic prescriptions for Romania's dire economic state and dropped out of the coalition.

Bolojan took office in June 2025 and blamed previous Social Democratic governments for allowing deficits to "to run out of control for years" and putting Romania in a position where it faced paying a "quite high bill."

Bolojan has pushed tax hikes, austerity measures and plans to partially privatize state-owned companies to reduce a ballooning budget deficit and soaring inflation, which were compounded by a recession in the second half of last year. Romania is reeling from the highest budget deficit and the highest inflation in the EU.

Teaming up with AUR was a particularly bold and disruptive act because Social Democrats in Romania and their center-left counterparts across Europe have long been among the staunchest defenders of the so-called cordon sanitaire against working with far-right forces.

By collaborating with AUR, the entire Social Democratic bloc faced accusations of hypocrisy. The Socialists and Democrats, the main center-left group in the European Parliament, did not respond to a query from Courthouse News seeking comment late Tuesday.

Vula Tsetsi, the chair of the European Green Party in Brussels, said Romania's Social Democrats would "cross their own red line" by aligning with AUR and that such a move would undermine the credibility of progressive factions that admonish mainstream conservatives whenever they consider working with the far right.

Sorina Cristina Soare, an expert on Romanian politics at the University of Florence in Italy, said it appeared the Social Democrats were mostly motivated by "a strategic convergence" with AUR to get rid of Bolojan.

"Whether this constitutes a real breach of the cordon sanitaire is still difficult to say," she said.

She pointed out that Sorin Grindeanu, the PSD leader, has excluded entering into a coalition agreement with AUR.

She also noted that PSD and AUR "are competing for overlapping segments of the electorate, and a full alliance with AUR could weaken PSD even further."

She said the Social Democrats' main goal was "political survival in a landscape where AUR is now a major force" that threatens it.

"The cordon sanitaire has shown some cracks, but it is still strategically in place," she said.

Across Europe, far-right forces are gaining in strength and much-weakened big-tent centrist parties on both the right and left are finding it increasingly difficult to form governments. This dynamic is opening cracks in the firewall against the far right.

In Romania, the Social Democrats said they would seek to cobble together a new coalition, but it remained far from clear what government might emerge if Bolojan were ousted.

Dan, the Romanian president, would be a pivotal player in negotiations. With AUR far ahead in the polls, it is the only major party eager for new elections. To avoid new elections, Dan may favor setting up a technocratic government.

"There does seem to be space for a technical or caretaker government," Soare said. "Early elections are mainly desired by AUR; the other parties are much less enthusiastic about that option, even if some of them say otherwise publicly."

In their censure motion, the Social Democrats and AUR said they wanted to stop Bolojan from "destroying the economy, impoverishing the population and fraudulently selling state assets."

"Romania is not a commodity and state-owned companies are not assets to be liquidated to cover political failures," AUR and PSD said.

Bolojan is looking at selling stakes in numerous state-owned companies, including airports in Bucharest, the Port of Constanta on the Black Sea, the National Salt Company, the Romanian Lottery, the national postal operator and a hydroelectric company.

PSD and AUR said privatizing those companies made no sense, especially when some of them were profitable, and they accused Bolojan of seeking to move "money from state property into the private pockets of obscure interest circles."

Bolojan argues Romania can no longer afford the financial drain and operational inefficiencies caused by its under-performing state enterprises. He has also pointed out that the state would hold onto a majority stake in the companies.

He also has argued that Romania must list or restructure at least three state-owned companies from the energy and transport sectors by August as a condition to secure up to 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) in EU recovery funds.

Soare said Romania's economic troubles were "clearly very bad" and that the country faced a rocky outlook.

"Even if a new government is formed quickly, market confidence, fiscal credibility, and social stability will remain under pressure," she said. "In that sense, the political crisis may be contained institutionally, but the economic consequences will continue to weigh heavily."

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Source: Courthouse News Service