Romania's pro-European parties agreed to form a majority government made up of groupings that were traditionally on opposite sides and shutting out far-right nationalists who made significant gains in the election on Dec.

Romania's pro-European parties reached a firm commitment late on Monday to form a governing majority that cordons off the hard right and potentially endorses a single candidate for a re-run of the country's annulled presidential election.

Romanian authorities raced to piece together how a little-known pro-Russian candidate won the first round of a presidential election that’s now been annulled as they carried out a crackdown of surging extremist forces.

Calin Georgescu, whose stunning victory in the first round of Romania's presidential election was declared void on Friday, is a hard-right, self-styled outsider critical of NATO who wants to end his country's support for its neighbour Ukraine.