{"id":11886,"date":"2026-09-08T06:01:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=11886"},"modified":"2026-09-08T06:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:01:38","slug":"romania-speeds-up-effort-to-appoint-new-government-ahead-of-sp-sovereign-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=11886","title":{"rendered":"Romania speeds up effort to appoint new government ahead of S&P sovereign update"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Dan reportedly wants a fully operational government in place before the next S&P sovereign rating review, expected in early October, with the rating agency\u2019s experts due in Bucharest on September 24, according to G4media.ro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The list of possible candidates, which already included incumbent finance minister Alexandru Nazare and presidential adviser Eugen Tomac, alongside the two candidates put forward by the parliamentary blocs \u2013 PSD president Sorin Grindeanu and MEP Siegfried Mure\u0219an (PNL, USR, UDMR) \u2013 has been expanded to include Luca Niculescu, a diplomat with no explicit political affiliation. According to Digi24<\/a>, Niculescu is reportedly preferred by president Dan to head a PSD-centred government.<\/p>\n

President Dan reportedly favours Niculescu, who is currently Romania\u2019s chief negotiator for OECD accession, but would make the appointment only after the parties secure a robust parliamentary majority of more than 250 MPs, compared with the 233 votes required for a government to be approved by Parliament.<\/p>\n

Even the 233-vote threshold, however, would be difficult for PSD to reach without open cooperation with the far-right AUR, as long as the centre-right bloc of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and Save Romania Union (USR) refuses to join or even conditionally support a PSD-centred coalition.<\/p>\n

With support from dissident PNL lawmakers, the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), MPs representing ethnic minorities and several smaller far-right parties, PSD would come close to the 233 votes needed, but would still require some support from AUR. PSD has already reportedly signed a parliamentary cooperation agreement with AUR, the party whose support helped bring down the previous governing coalition of PNL, USR and UDMR.<\/p>\n

A formal ruling coalition between PSD and AUR would nevertheless be problematic. AUR seems to be seeking early elections rather than immediate participation in government, while an openly PSD-AUR government would likely face criticism from the European Union.<\/p>\n

There are nevertheless scenarios that could allow a PSD-centred government to secure the necessary votes in Parliament. Digi24 speculated that PNL leader Ilie Bolojan could allow the party\u2019s MPs to vote individually despite the party\u2019s decision not to support a PSD-centred government. Separately, G4Media reported that a group of AUR MPs could be willing to support a PNL-centred government.<\/p>\n

A PSD-centred government could deliver only short-lived fiscal consolidation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In either scenario, a PSD-centred government would likely seek to meet the minimum fiscal consolidation targets while continuing to block or delay structural reforms. This could be sufficient to keep the fiscal adjustment broadly on track in 2027, but would likely result in renewed fiscal slippage towards the end of next year and, more clearly, in 2028.<\/p>\n

In Parliament, meanwhile, PSD and AUR would likely maintain their cooperation on legislation, including initiatives that could further weaken liberal-democratic institutions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Dan reportedly wants a fully operational government in place before the next S&P sovereign rating review, expected in early October, with the rating agency\u2019s experts due in Bucharest on September 24, according to G4media.ro. The list of possible candidates, which already included incumbent finance minister Alexandru Nazare and presidential adviser Eugen Tomac, alongside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}