Today, December 1, is Romania’s national day commemorating the unification of Romania.  While most Romanians are taking the day off, vote-counters from the weekend’s parliamentary elections are busy:

Parties neck and neck in Romania election

Romania’s parliamentary election results Monday showed the centrist and leftist parties less than a percentage point apart with more than 90 percent of the vote counted, raising the prospect of tough negotiations to form a coalition.  The leftist Social Democrats (PSD) had slightly more with more than 33.5 percent while the centrist Democratic Liberal Party, supported by President Traian Basescu, had about 33 percent of the votes from Sunday’s election, in which anxiety over the global financial crisis was a major issue.

The center-right Liberal Party was third with about 18 percent so far, said Election Office spokesman Marian Muhulet.  If those proportions continue though the vote count, no party would have a majority in Parliament.  Two polls late Sunday that have been highly reliable in past elections said that the leftists had come first, but by early morning the outcome looked less clear.

Two things of note: since Europe’s turn toward center-right parties in the last decade, leftist social democrats have taken a beating in the polls.  That PSD could come back from years of defeat to challenge the center-rightists must mean that Romanians are fearing the economic crisis and feel new leadership is necessary.  The Center Right party led by Basescu successfully led Romania into the European Union a couple of years ago.

Second thing to note?  I see what CNN is doing with their headline.  “Neck and Neck,” huh?  Romania… necks… VAMPIRES?  Oh, you don’t fool me, CNN, with your Romania-is-the-land-of-vampires stereotypes.  Shame on you, CNN.  Go stand in the corner and think about what you done.