Romania’s political deadlock: how pro-western parties averted crisis

Thanks to a series of compromises, Romania has finally appointed a new prime minister.

An attempt to reformat the coalition and appoint a new head of government nearly resulted in snap parliamentary elections.

For some time, the country lacked a fully functioning president and prime minister. Both positions were held by acting officials.

Read more to understand how Romania is gradually emerging from a deep political crisis in the article by Serhii Herasymchuk and Rostyslav Klymov of the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian Prism": Romania takes a step back from the abyss: how defeating the far-right Is changing Ukraine’s neighbour."

The Romanian political crisis began between the two rounds of the presidential election. On 5 May, just one day after the first round, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced his resignation.

This move was a reaction to the poor result of the governing coalition’s presidential candidate. Crin Antonescu, backed by pro-government parties, came in third and failed to advance to the runoff.

As a result, the coalition effectively collapsed between the first and second rounds of the election, leaving the country with a caretaker government at a critical moment in the political battle.

The collapse of the coalition meant the loss of a parliamentary majority just before the decisive stage of the election and created a power vacuum. Ciolacu himself acknowledged that if a new president were elected, he would be removed from office anyway.

Newly elected President Nicușor Dan declared from the outset that he intended to unite four pro-European parties to form a government and prevent populists from coming to power.

These parties included: the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR).

Uniting such different partners proved to be difficult. The leading parties had accumulated a significant amount of toxicity, contradictions and mutual distrust.

Nevertheless, a compromise plan was eventually found: to repeat the rotational prime ministership model that had been used in the past.

In the end, the compromise figure capable of leading the new government turned out to be the former acting president, Ilie Bolojan.

On 23 June, during a joint session of both houses of Romania’s parliament, a new coalition government led by Bolojan was approved.

The prolonged government crisis and the difficulty in forming a new majority exposed Romania’s vulnerabilities.

One and a half months of political vacuum led to stagnation in implementing necessary reforms.

The new Bolojan government must now make up for lost time: reducing the budget deficit, implementing tax reform and optimising public spending. All to ensure Romania meets the Maastricht criteria and can eventually move toward joining the eurozone.

If the new leadership lives up to the EU’s expectations, Romania could, in the coming years, achieve long-standing goals: advancing toward eurozone membership and becoming a fully fledged player in European politics.

This, in turn, is expected to serve as a "vaccine" against the rising popularity of far-right forces.