A new prime minister-designate

Adrian Veștea is the new prime minister-designate proposed by Romania’s president Nicușor Dan.

Bogdan Matei, 15.06.2026, 14:00

Romanians’ appetite for domestic politics is probably never lower than on a Sunday morning, and yet, that’s exactly when president Nicușor Dan announced that MEP Eugen Tomac resigned as prime minister-designate and that he was proposing Adrian Veștea instead.

Veștea is the first vice-president of the National Liberal Party, a former mayor of Râșnov and head of the Brașov County Council for three terms. The president said Veștea had gone through all the administrative stages and described his stint as minister for development as successful in terms of attracting European funding. He is firmly pro-Western, a person with values, a person of dialogue, the president also said about the new prime minister-designate. An economist by profession, with studies in accounting and public administration management, Adrian Veștea (52 years old) has been a member of the National Liberal Party since 1994.

President Dan thanked Eugen Tomac for his seriousness, his commitment and sense of responsibility. Only a day earlier, the media reported that Tomac was going to submit his government programme and cabinet list to Parliament on Sunday, while noting that he would not get the needed endorsement of at least 233 votes from senators and deputies.

Veștea says he is convinced he will get the necessary votes, that he is determined to go all the way and that he believes Romania will have a new cabinet in place within a week at most. Political commentators are more skeptical.

President Dan’s decision to designate him, which he did not share with the Liberals in advance, has caused tensions within the National Liberal Party. Some have welcomed the nomination, others have described it as a hostile act intended to divide the National  Liberal Party led by interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan, whose government was dismissed by Parliament on May 5, in a no-confidence motion.

Moreover, critics of President Dan say he violated the Constitution by nominating Veștea before consulting with the parliamentary parties. The latter have reacted in different ways to the president’s unexpected nomination. A resolution adopted unanimously by the leadership of the Save Romania Union says “a government cannot be born based on betrayal of one’s own party”. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania is waiting for the National Liberal Party to clarify its position and for a government programme and cabinet list to be published before making a decision. Most likely, journalists believe, the Social Democrats will vote in favor of a liberal prime minister, other than Bolojan, as they have kept saying. The parliamentary group of national minorities said it will support any government that is pro-Euro-Atlantic.

Meanwhile, opinion polls show a high percentage of the population believes the country is going in the wrong direction, and President Dan himself admitted last week, that “the Romanian people care little” about the politicians’ debates.