He currently serves as vice-president of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), the largest group in the EP, and vice-president of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
Siegfried Mure\u015fan was born on September 20, 1981, in Hunedoara, to a Romanian father and an ethnic German mother from the Transylvanian Saxon community, hence his German-sounding first name.<\/p>\n
He graduated from the German-language section of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies in 2004 and continued his studies with a master\u2019s degree in economics and management at Humboldt University in Berlin. He was a scholarship holder and later an adviser to the chairman of the Committee on European Affairs in the German Parliament (Bundestag), Gunther Krichbaum, for three years, according to News.ro<\/a>.<\/p>\n From 2011, he worked as a senior political adviser on economic issues within the EPP in Brussels.<\/p>\n Siegfried Mure\u015fan is married to C\u0103t\u0103lina Manea, a fraud prevention expert at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. He speaks German, English and French fluently.<\/p>\n Siegfried Mure\u015fan officially entered Romanian politics in 2014, when he was elected MEP on the lists of the People\u2019s Movement Party (PMP), a party created at the initiative of former president Traian B\u0103sescu. During that period, he campaigned for B\u0103sescu\u2019s ally and protege Elena Udrea, and was proposed by the president for the position of prime minister. In 2018, he moved to the National Liberal Party (PNL), subsequently also becoming president of the PNL Diaspora organization.<\/p>\n Mure\u015fan\u2019s European profile is one of his strongest assets, according to his supporters. He is the first Romanian to have served as the European Parliament\u2019s lead negotiator for the EU\u2019s annual budget in 2018 and 2024. His financial expertise was also essential in negotiating the future Multiannual Budget (2028-2034), managing a package estimated at approximately two trillion euros, and supporting the funding of agriculture and cohesion policy.<\/p>\n Moreover, he served as co-rapporteur for the implementation of the NRRP, managing to include provisions favorable to Romania, such as increasing the advance payment and the period for using the funds.<\/p>\n At present, he is chairman of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the Republic of Moldova, being a vocal supporter of its accession to the EU and negotiator for financial packages to modernize infrastructure across the small country. For these efforts, he was awarded the “Order of Honor” by Maia Sandu in 2021.<\/p>\n All major political leaders reacted to Mure\u0219an\u2019s appointment as prime minister. While the National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR), and the Hungarian minority party UDMR expressed support for their candidate for PM, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) rejected the appointment.<\/p>\n PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu said on Thursday, September 17, that he would advise his colleagues in Parliament to vote against the investiture of the Mure\u0219an government.<\/p>\n \u201cSiegfried Mure\u0219an will fall with glory in Parliament. That is my bet,\u201d Grindeanu commented, according to G4Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lia Olgu\u021ba Vasilescu, the PSD mayor of Craiova and a dominating figure in the party, said Mure\u0219an \u201chas no idea what it is like to live in Romania.\u201d She further claimed that \u201cRomanians will twist their tongues trying to pronounce his name,\u201d referring to the PM-designate\u2019s German-sounding first name, according to Euronews Romania<\/a>.<\/p>\n AUR president George Simion, in turn, said his party will not vote for any government in which AUR is not part. After Mure\u0219an\u2019s appointment, he made a post on Facebook<\/a> suggesting that the PM-designate was a stand-in for Germany. He also hinted at a \u201chidden agreement\u201d between Nicu\u0219or Dan and PSD, stressing that no stable majority could be formed without the votes of the party he leads.<\/p>\n To become Romania\u2019s next prime minister, Siegfried Mure\u0219an needs to gather a majority of MPs in the Parliament. PNL, USR and UDMR have only 169 of the 233 votes needed. Even if he were to obtain all 17 votes of the national minorities group, the three parties supporting him would reach 186 and would still need another 47 MPs.<\/p>\nPolitical career<\/h2>\n
Critics<\/h2>\n
In search of a majority<\/h2>\n