Mureșan Cabinet rejected in Parliament
Siegfried Mureşan’s cabinet failed to get Parliament’s confidence vote.
Roxana Vasile, 01.10.2026, 14:00
As expected, the government lineup proposed by the PM designate Siegfried Mureșan was rejected by the joint chambers of Parliament on Wednesday. 321 MPs out of a total 464 attended the session, but out of 197 valid votes cast, 182 were in favour and 15 against. In order to be sworn in, this government needed a minimum of 233 favorable votes.
Consequently, president Nicușor Dan convened the parliamentary parties again on Monday for consultations in order to designate a new prime minister who would try to form a majority 5 months after the government made up of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) was dismissed following a no-confidence vote and stayed on with limited powers ever since.
The MEP Siegfried Mureșan was the third nomination made by the head of state, after the non-affiliated MEP Eugen Tomac and the Liberal Adrian Veștea, disowned even by some of his own colleagues. Convinced that he would fail to secure a majority, Tomac resigned before going to Parliament for a vote of confidence, while the Veștea cabinet lost the vote, as did Siegfried Mureșan on Wednesday.
Under the Constitution, if Parliament rejects two PM designations, the president of the country can dissolve Parliament and call early elections. But Nicușor Dan dismisses this option, and is going to make a fourth nomination next week. He says that early elections would lead to total instability and would block a rather urgent state budget adjustment.
Moreover, he draws a line at including the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) in a prospective ruling coalition. The head of state says he has a duty to respect his voters’ will to keep the country on a pro-Western direction, and AUR, which came second in the latest parliamentary elections, after the Social Democrats, would not meet this condition.
While Nicușor Dan’s red line complicates the maths of a future government with full powers, AUR draws its own red line and announces it will not vote for any cabinet until the former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu is released from the 30-day pre-trial arrest ordered early this week.
As a result, the political deadlock continues. The PSD claims it is ready to be an alternative to the recent austerity measures, with a programme that will restart the economy and restore Romanians’ confidence and hope. But by themselves, the Social Democrats do not have a majority. Meanwhile, PNL, USR and UDMR have so far refused to form a government with the PSD, although they too fall short of a parliamentary majority. In fact, without the Social Democrats and the Liberals, the pro-European majority that the head of state desires is impossible. (AMP)
