Romania’s new Prime Minister Luca Niculescu in the Romanian Parliament, 20 October 2026. Photo: EPA/Robert Ghement.
Former journalist and diplomat Luca Niculescu won a parliamentary confidence vote on Tuesday, securing the support needed to form a new government that plans to focus on pressing economic challenges and the implementation of key reforms.
The new cabinet secured 280 votes in favour and 55 against, comfortably exceeding the 233 votes needed for confirmation. It was backed by the main Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Liberal Party (PNL) and several smaller parliamentary groups. However, some lawmakers from nationalist and far-right opposition parties, as well as members of the reformist Union to Save Romania (USR), opposed the government.
Niculescu, 55, will lead a cabinet that includes 11 ministers from the PSD and seven independents.
“Romania has no more time to lose,” Luca Niculescu said ahead of the vote, pledging to focus immediately on budget revisions, energy security and reducing waste in the public sector.
“I am an independent PM, but beyond our different political choices … we share a common responsibility for the future, which we have a duty to build together,” he added.
After more than three decades as a journalist, Luca Niculescu entered public service in 2016 when he was appointed Romania’s ambassador to France. For the past four years, he has served as a state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, coordinating Romania’s accession to the OECD, where he demonstrated his diplomatic skills and ability to negotiate complex reforms.
President Nicusor Dan nominated Niculescu for prime minister on October 5. He represents Dan’s fourth attempt at nominating a prime minister in the five months since liberal leader Ilie Bolojan’s government was removed by a no-confidence motion on May 5.
The first nominee, independent Eugen Tomac, withdrew on June 6 before even facing a parliamentary vote. Three weeks later, parliament rejected the proposed programme and cabinet of liberal politician Adrian Vestea. Siegfried Muresan, a member of the European Parliament, also failed on September 30 to secure sufficient support in a vote.
Romania’s political crisis stems from deep tensions among the parties that previously formed a pro-European governing coalition.
The coalition, formed in June 2025, brought together the centre-left PSD, the centre-right PNL, and two smaller centre-right parties. One of its main objectives was to curb the rise of the far-right party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).
The coalition’s mandate included stabilising the economy, which is burdened by the largest budget deficit in the European Union, securing access to 11 billion euros in EU recovery funds and safeguarding Romania’s investment-grade credit rating.
But unpopular austerity measures introduced to cut the budget deficit placed growing strain on the coalition, particularly with the Social Democrats, who withdrew their support.