Newsletters
Romania’s parliament was due Wednesday to vote on a third nominee for prime minister, although analysts said his chances of being confirmed appeared slim, bringing the prospect of snap parliamentary elections closer.
The four-party, pro-European coalition government collapsed in May when the governing Social Democrats, together with the opposition far right, ousted liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
Since then, pro-European Union President Nicusor Dan has nominated two candidates for prime minister.
Both failed, leading Dan to choose liberal European Parliament member Siegfried Muresan.
Muresan, 45, backed by three parties from the former coalition, has promised a pro-EU Cabinet with “an ambitious reform agenda.”
But he can count on only 170 of the 233 votes needed to be approved as prime minister.
Analysts say Muresan’s chances are slim because the center-left Social Democratic Party, or PSD, the largest party in Romania, has refused to back him and is demanding the premiership for itself.
The PSD, which holds 129 seats in parliament, quit the ruling coalition over austerity measures introduced by Bolojan.
It has accused Muresan, a vice president of the right-wing European People’s Party in the European Parliament, of being an arrogant, “second-hand Bolojan.”
Dan, a centrist who has ruled out a government including the far right, nominated Muresan after one previous prime minister-designate withdrew and another failed to secure parliamentary backing for his Cabinet.
Reacting to the prolonged political stalemate, Dan accused political parties of showing “more concern for electoral matters and far less concern for the national interest.”
If Muresan fails, the legal conditions for snap elections would be met.
But Dan has said a new vote would only prolong the crisis.
The rising far right, which makes up roughly a third of parliament, has threatened to impeach Dan if he does not call early elections once the conditions are met.
Romania, an EU and NATO member that borders Ukraine, has not held snap elections since the fall of communism in 1989.
The main far-right party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, or AUR, is leading in two recent polls, one at almost 40% and the other at 36%.
Political analyst Cristian Pirvulescu told AFP he expected Dan to end up choosing another candidate for prime minister, possibly a technocrat, before resorting to snap elections.
Pirvulescu said early elections would likely produce another fragmented parliament, but with an emboldened far right.
“Early elections mean that, from the moment they are called, it would take four months before a new government could be formed,” Pirvulescu said.
“Due to political instability, Romania finds itself in a very complicated economic situation. Four months is already a very long time.”
Romania, a country of 19 million, has been struggling for months with the highest public deficit and inflation in the European Union.
In August, credit rating agencies said Romania’s outlook remained negative because the political crisis created a risk that deficit-cutting reforms would lose momentum.
Romania has faced heightened political uncertainty since December 2024, when the presidential election was annulled over allegations of Russian interference on behalf of far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.
Dan won a rerun of the presidential vote in May 2025, defeating AUR leader George Simion.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
