October 6, 2026
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 06.10.2026, 13:55
Government. Romanian President Nicusor Dan has designated the independent Luca Niculescu for the office of Prime Minister, a new attempt to put an end to the extended political crisis facing Romania. This is the fourth such nomination, as a result of a no-confidence motion adopted in Parliament. Luca Niculescu, the current coordinator of Romania’s OECD accession process, has 10 days to form the Cabinet and formulate a governing program, before the confidence vote in Parliament. Although the Constitution allowed him to dissolve Parliament and call for early elections, President Dan refused to consider that option.
Eurobrometer. Romanians spent less in the first eight months of the year. Figures published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) show that the volume of retail trade fell by 5 per cent compared with the same period in 2025. The sharpest declines were seen in non-food products, followed by food, drink and tobacco, and then fuel. At the same time, the decline in living standards and poverty are the main causes for concern among Romanians, and their fears are more pronounced than in most EU Member States, according to data from the Eurobarometer survey on Europeans’ perceptions of the economy. Bills and health are also among the main concerns. Furthermore, half of Romanians consider the current state of the country’s economy to be bad, a quarter consider it to be neither good nor bad, and just over a fifth consider it to be in a good state.
Nobel. The Nobel Prize in Physics is due to be awarded today in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. On Monday, the Prize in Medicine was awarded to the American Karl Deisseroth and the Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, for ‘their discoveries concerning light-activated ion channels and optogenetics’. The Nobel Prizes, which are also awarded for outstanding achievements in chemistry, literature, peace and economics, come with a sum recently increased to 12 million Swedish kronor (equivalent to approximately 1.21 million US dollars) and confer upon the laureates an instant fame unimaginable to the vast majority of scientists – according to international news agencies. The Nobel Prize was established by the wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), best known as the inventor of dynamite. In his will, he stipulated that the bulk of his fortune should be used to fund ‘prizes awarded to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit upon mankind’.
Football. The Romanian national team were beaten 1–0 (1–0) by Sweden on Monday evening at the National Arena in Bucharest, in Group B4 of the Nations League. Romania are bottom of the group, with zero points and a goal difference of 3–13, having also lost its first three matches in this Nations League international window: 1–2 away from home to Sweden on 25 September, 2–4 at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 28 September, and 0–6 away to Poland in Warsaw on 2 October. It was one of the most crushing defeats in the national team’s history and sparked a wave of criticism in the press and amongst supporters regarding both the quality of the players and head coach Gheorghe Hagi’s managerial abilities. Next month, Romania will play their final two group matches: at home against Poland on 14 November and away against Bosnia and Herzegovina on 17 November.
RRI. Between 5 and 9 October inclusive, Radio Romania’s technical team will be migrating the broadcasts of the public service radio stations to a new technical platform. For this reason, we will be broadcasting a backup programme over the air, in all languages and on all shortwave frequencies used by Radio Romania International. In the meantime, you can find us on our website at www.rri.ro, including on-demand programmes and updated content, on the RRI apps for Android and iOS, and on RRI’s social media profiles. (MI)
