Romania's prime minister fights for survival as no-confidence motion is debated in Parliament

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan faces a no-confidence motion on Tuesday afternoon, as a former coalition partner joins forces with a hard-right opposition party in a bid to bring down his pro-European government less than a year after the coalition was sworn in.

The joint effort was launched last week when the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, submitted the motion to Parliament — tipping the European Union country back into a period of political uncertainty.

Lawmakers are debating the motion in Parliament on Tuesday before a vote — which requires at least 233 votes to pass. The PSD and AUR said separately last week that they had enough support for the motion.

Bolojan, of the center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, called the motion “cynical and artificial,” and said Tuesday in Parliament 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.

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

PSD said that Bolojan has “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.”

If Bolojan is toppled, 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, says 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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Stephen McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.