BUCHAREST, Romania — Lawmakers in Romania on Wednesday rejected a new center-right Cabinet proposed by Siegfried Muresan, who was the latest of three designated prime ministers in recent months tasked with ending a deepening political crisis.
The vote prolongs the crisis and raises the chance of early elections at a time of regional security concerns, with the NATO member confronting a sharp increase in drone incursions linked to Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine.
The vote was 182 lawmakers for the proposed Cabinet and 15 against, but it left Muresan well short of the 233 votes needed to secure Parliamentary approval in the European Union country.
“We came up with a solution to end the political crisis, and we saw that the parties that triggered the political crisis voted to extend the political crisis,” Muresan told a press conference after the vote.
Muresan, 45, had proposed what he described as a “reform-oriented” governing program under his center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, which teamed up with the Save Romania Union party, or USR, and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party.
The political crisis has gripped Romania since May, when Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was ousted in a no-confidence motion jointly filed by the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which was part of the governing coalition, and the nationalist opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR.
Both PSD and AUR had said before Wednesday’s vote that they would not support Muresan’s Cabinet.
After the vote, PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu said Romania “urgently needs” a government with full powers. “We are ready to take on the task of turning Romania around,” he said in a post on Facebook.
After ministerial hearings this week, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said “it’s time for this political crisis to end” and warned that a snap election “would be a continuation of instability and distrust” among Romanians and among financial markets.
“Early elections are not a solution,” Dan said Tuesday.
Muresan, who became a European lawmaker in 2014, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that early elections may be the only alternative if the political crisis is not resolved soon.
“I would rather have two months of an election campaign and early elections to receive a new mandate from the people rather than two years of uncertainty until the next parliamentary election,” he said.
Muresan said Romania already faces a series of major challenges, such as restoring its economic competitiveness and myriad security threats, which he said include energy security, cybersecurity and drones violating Romania’s airspace. “All of these issues have an international dimension,” he said.
When the previous coalition came to power in 2025, Bolojan was sworn in with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-Communist history and reducing a massive budget deficit.
Dan made two nominations in June, but neither candidate managed to form a government. The president can dissolve Parliament if it rejects two Cabinet proposals within 60 days of the first rejection. The next election is scheduled for 2028.
Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, said before the vote Wednesday that the president’s next nomination for prime minister could shift Romania’s pro-European orientation toward right-wing populism.
“A new nomination from the president is expected, a candidate accepted by the Social Democrats and a cabinet controlled by them,” he said. “There’s no clear conclusion for the current political deadlock, but a cooperation between the Social Democrats, the populists and extremists might swing Romania from a pro-European coalition to a populist one.”
Muresan has long accused the AUR, which came in second in a 2024 parliamentary election, of being anti-European. He slammed the PSD for collaborating with the hard-right party on the no-confidence motion that toppled the previous government.
“People will be able to see exactly if the Social Democratic Party will continue to partner with anti-European extremists or if it will vote for the pro-European government,” he said. “No other member state of the European Union, as a party that claims that it is a social democracy, cooperates with the extreme-right populist anti-European.”
McGrath and Ghirda write for the Associated Press. McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.
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