THE WEEK IN REVIEW
June 23-27, 2025
Roxana Vasile, 28.06.2025, 13:00
Romania has a new Government
As of Monday, June 23, Romania has a new Government. Liberal Ilie Bolojan is expected to be Prime Minister until April 2027, after which the leadership of the Executive will pass, until December 2028, to the PSD. It is the central element of a political agreement concluded by the new majority coalition in Bucharest, made up of the same formations in power before the parliamentary and presidential elections – PSD, PNL and UDMR – which were joined by the USR, previously in opposition. The Cabinet will have 16 ministries and 5 deputy prime ministers – 3 do not have a ministerial portfolio, and one of the deputy prime ministers without a portfolio will coordinate the reform of the State and the streamlining of the activity of public institutions. During hearings on Monday in Parliament, all the ministers proposed to be part of the new Executive received a favorable opinion in the specialized committees, then were voted on in the reunited plenum of the Legislative. In the evening, the new Government was sworn in in the presence of the country’s President, Nicușor Dan, and then held its first meeting. PSD will manage Transport, Agriculture, Justice, Energy, Health and Labor. PNL ministers will deal with Interior, Education, Finance and European Funds. USR representatives will be active in Defense, Foreign Affairs, Economy and Environment, while UDMR will manage, through its ministers, Development and Culture.
Government priorities
After taking over their portfolios, each minister in the new Cabinet in Bucharest presented their priorities, all of which were subsumed under the absolute priority – reducing the country’s huge deficit. In fact, the entire – long – period preceding the formation of a government coalition was marked by finding solutions in this regard on which all the parties in power would agree. They discussed budget revenues and the measures that can be taken to improve their collection, reducing public spending, or a possible increase in VAT. The government is determined to balance public finances and implement responsible economic policies – Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan conveyed this on Wednesday to representatives of the Fitch rating agency, with whom he discussed the situation in which Bucharest is trying to avoid a relegation of the country, in August, to the junk category, i.e. not recommended for investments. The same risk looms on the part of the Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s agencies, in September and October. As for ordinary Romanians, three out of four are distrustful that the new Government will correctly manage the additional revenues obtained from the fiscal changes under consideration, and 64% are most afraid of the VAT increase. People believe – the study’s authors also say – that only after waste disappears should new taxes be discussed. Students have already protested in university centers across the country against the Government’s initiative to change the way scholarships are calculated on the grounds that there is no money.
Romanian President, in The Hague and Brussels
The NATO summit in The Hague ended on Wednesday with the reconfirmation of the allies’ commitment to collective defense and with an agreement by member countries, including Romania, to allocate 5% of GDP to defense by 2035. The summit’s joint statement also mentioned that Russia represents a long-term threat to the North Atlantic area and that Ukraine’s security is closely linked to the security of the allies. Romania was represented at the NATO summit by President Nicuşor Dan, who reaffirmed the importance of the Black Sea region and the need for support for Ukraine. At the same time, he drew attention to the importance of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova, at the end of September. From The Hague, the head of state went to Brussels, to the summit of European Union leaders, focused on defense, support for Ukraine, as well as the situation in the Middle East. On the sidelines of the high-level meeting, Nicuşor Dan had discussions with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, about Romania’s plan to reduce its deficit, but also about the delays in the NPRR.
In new times, other new people
The interim leader of the PSD, Sorin Grindeanu, was elected, this week, president of the Chamber of Deputies. The position had remained vacant, as Ciprian Şerban took over the mandate of Minister of Transport. The leadership also changed in the Senate, with the liberal Mircea Abrudean elected as president, who now occupies the position vacated by Ilie Bolojan, who was sworn in as Prime Minister. On the other hand, the Senate validated Mihai Busuioc, nominated by the PSD, as a judge at the Constitutional Court. In turn, the deputies voted to appoint Csaba Asztalos, from the UDMR, as a judge at the CCR. The two judges of the Constitutional Court were appointed for a nine-year term. Also this week, the Superior Council of Magistracy appointed Judge Lia Savonea as president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice. She will take office after mid-September. Lia Savonea was the president of the Superior Council of Magistracy in 2019, and two years ago she was promoted to the position of judge at the supreme court, after having been the president of the Bucharest Court of Appeals.
The first episode of heatwave this summer
On Thursday, the first orange heatwave code of this summer was declared in Romania. It targets a significant part of the southwest and south of the country, areas for which meteorologists had forecast maximum temperatures of 38…40 degrees Celsius. In parallel, a yellow code of high temperatures was also declared in three quarters of the country.
