Bucharest can stop counting the weeks of limbo. On Tuesday, deputies and senators meeting in a joint session approved the cabinet of Luca Niculescu, a 55-year-old independent with a past as a journalist and as a diplomat, by 280 votes to 58. He needed 233. In keeping with tradition, the ballot was secret and cast with small balls.
The result closes a chapter that began in the spring, when the Social Democrats (PSD), the biggest party in parliament, walked out of the pro-European coalition over austerity and later joined the hard-right AUR in a no-confidence motion that brought down Ilie Bolojan in May. President Nicușor Dan then tried three candidates without success before nominating Niculescu on 5 October.
What has emerged is a minority team of PSD politicians and technocrats. The National Liberals of Bolojan, who stayed on as caretaker, are not in it, but they described their support as a vote of necessity to end the crisis. On top of that, a pair of centre-right parties signed written pledges to leave the new cabinet alone, with no censure motion from them until the spring of 2027. The Social Democrats, for their part, say they will review their backing after six months.
“I am not asking for a blank check,” the new premier told lawmakers. His real test comes with the 2027 budget. Romania still runs one of the widest deficits in the EU, forecast at 6.2% of GDP this year, and has promised Brussels to bring it under 3% by 2030. Rating agencies keep the country on the lowest investment-grade step and have warned that a failure to pass a credible plan could cost it that status.
The PSD wants the opposite of more cuts. Its leader Sorin Grindeanu argues that the country needs “an economic recovery plan, not austerity”. Waiting in the wings is AUR, hostile to Brussels and to helping Ukraine, which currently tops opinion surveys at roughly 40%. Voters are not scheduled to return to the polls before the end of 2028, and Romania has never once called a snap election.
