Romania’s pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Romania’s pro-European coalition collapsed Tuesday after lawmakers voted in favor of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, triggering a fresh period of turmoil in the European Union country less than a year after the coalition was sworn in.

The joint effort was launched April 28 when the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, submitted the motion to Parliament.

After a parliamentary debate, 281 lawmakers voted in favor and four voted against the motion. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party did not cast votes.

Bolojan called the motion “cynical and artificial” and said before the vote that it “seems to be written by people who were not in government every day and did not participate in all the decisions.”

“It is cynical, because it does not take into account the context in which we find ourselves,” he said. “I assumed the position of prime minister, being aware that it comes with enormous pressure and that I would not receive applause from the citizens. But I chose to do what was urgent and necessary for our country.”

Romania has faced a long period of instability after a presidential election was annulled in December 2024, and the country is grappling with one of the highest budget deficits in the EU, rampant inflation and a technical recession.

In June, when the coalition was voted in, it pledged pledged to make reducing the budget deficit a top priority. The PSD often found itself at loggerheads with Bolojan over some of the austerity measures, which included tax hikes, public sector wage and pension freezes, and cutting public spending and public administration jobs.

PSD President Sorin Grindeanu said Bolojan should appoint an interim prime minister due to the margin of support, adding that he expects Romanian President Nicusor Dan to consult PSD.

“I would like us to quickly find a solution … together with the other parties and move forward,” Grindeanu said. “PSD is willing to quickly find a solution. All options are open.”

PNL Secretary General Dan Motreanu wrote in a social media post that PSD and AUR “have a duty to take over the government, to come up with a prime minister proposal and a clear program,” accusing the two parties of “playing political theatre.”

“You cannot overthrow a government and then run away from accountability,” Motreanu said. “In the economy, any signal of political chaos quickly translates into real costs to people.”

PSD last week said Bolojan “failed to implement any genuine reform” in his 10 months leading the government, and said Romania needs a leader who is “capable of collaboration.”

Bolojan said that he took tough but necessary fiscal measures that effectively “regained the trust of the markets in the Romanian government.”

The PSD would be needed to form a pro-European parliamentary majority. The party has previously ruled out entering a government with AUR. George Simion, the AUR leader, said Tuesday that voters had “supported and wanted water, food, energy,” but had “received taxes, war and poverty.”

“We assume the future of this country, a future government and restore the hope of the Romanians,” he said. “Romania must go back to the vote of the Romanians.”

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, said the crisis will likely lead to a stalemate, since “no one has a majority, or a coalition, and it will take the president ... weeks to find such a majority and name a new prime minister, prolonging the indecision.”

“At this moment, there are two tentative options for a new Cabinet, both difficult to achieve; either a reshuffled coalition, without Bolojan, in the same formation ... or a minority Cabinet, rather led by PSD and satellites from populist parties, like AUR, or other small groups,” he said. “A PSD-AUR official Cabinet is not a possibility today because the president will not endorse it.”

The prime ministerial position was set to be rotated in 2027 from Bolojan to a PSD premier as part of a power-sharing agreement. A general election is scheduled for 2028.

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.