PSD – AUR Cooperation for a no confidence vote
The Social Democrats (PSD) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) have teamed up in an attempt to topple the pro-European Executive led by the Liberal Ilie Bolojan
Ştefan Stoica, 28.04.2026, 14:00
Romania’s biggest Parliament party, PSD, and the one that leads in the opinion polls, AUR, have announced they join forces to obtain the resignation of the minority government PNL – USR – UDMR headed by the Liberal Ilie Bolojan. The Social-Democrats have recently left the ruling coalition specially made to isolate the ultra-nationalist populists who called themselves sovereignist, because they didn’t want Bolojan to lead the Executive. The announcement that the PSD and AUR will jointly table a no confidence vote came as something of a surprise and was not made by the presidents of the two political parties, Sorin Grindeanu and George Simeon, respectively.
When the announcement was made on Monday morning, Grindeanu and Bolojan were attending a new round of talks, the country’s president Nicusor Dan was hosting with the pro-European parties.
Grindeanu later explained the joint action is exclusively focusing on getting rid of the Bolojan cabinet and would not be followed by the Social-Democrats’ cooperation with the populists. He called on the prefects and state secretaries proposed by the PSD to withdraw from their positions in the following period as all the Social-Democratic ministers did last week.
In turn, the AUR leader, George Simion, says the purpose of this alliance is to make the Bolojan government to step down. The no confidence vote is expected to also enjoy support from the other sovereignists in the Legislature. Until now PSD and AUR had ruled out any form of cooperation. The move has triggered a reaction from the National Liberal Party, PNL, who describes PSD’s decision as reckless.
The Liberals also announced that if the PSD joined the efforts of bringing down the incumbent pro-European cabinet through a no-confidence vote, a future cooperation with the aforementioned party would become impossible.
The Social Democratic Party, who destroyed the government by breaking all the agreements in their attempt to find an ally for this no confidence vote, increases its chances to have the motion endorsed on one hand, but on the other hand they are preparing another alliance and we are de facto witnessing how a new coalition is actually taking shape, Ilie Bolojan says. The USR leader, Dominic Fritz, has also rejected any cooperation with the latter are going to endorse the no confidence vote.
On the other hand, political leaders are also taking into consideration early election. Obviously, the AUR pleads for the idea of returning to the people. And they have been doing this since December 2024, when the Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential voting, which had been won with help from abroad by the pro-Russian extremist, Calin Georgescu, a man who enjoyed consistent AUR support.
Reuters and Bloomberg report that Romania’s largest party in Parliament, the Social Democrats will team up with the hard-right opposition Alliance for Uniting Romanians in a bid to topple the pro-European coalition government endangering the country’s access to EU funds, sovereign ratings and debt yields.
The censure motion needs at least 233 yes votes to make the government to step down.
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