Bolojan Cabinet faces vote of no-confidence
The nationalist opposition has called a vote of no-confidence against the government, scheduled for next week
Roxana Vasile, 10.07.2025, 14:00
Less than a month after being sworn in, the coalition government in Bucharest faces its first vote of no-confidence. The motion was filed by the nationalist opposition, after the Bolojan Cabinet recently assumed responsibility for a first package of fiscal austerity measures aimed at reducing the country’s deficit, the largest in the EU. Measures target increases in taxes and excise duties and the freezing of salaries and pensions, all of which cannot be blocked unless the government is dismissed through a vote of no confidence. Presented in Parliament on Thursday morning, the motion will be debated and voted on Monday, July 14. Claiming the parties in the current ruling coalition are solely to blame for the country’s budget problems, the signatories of the motion believe that the aforementioned fiscal measures will boost inflation and trigger a decrease in people’s living standards. “The governments of recent years, under the magnifying glass of official figures and facts presented without bias, have caused a record-high budget deficit, after it stood below 3% over 2013-2018”, the opposition claims. “A mixture of ineffectiveness, incompetence and ill will”, this is how the signatories of the motion characterize the recent activity of Romanian lawmakers, who, the opposition adds, cannot balance the budget by cutting expenses alone, and now resort to increasing taxes.
For the motion to be submitted, the opposition had to collect 117 signatures. The party behind the initiative, AUR. needed the support of representatives of POT, SOS Romania and unaffiliated MPs to obtain the number of necessary signatures. For the motion to pass, it requires the votes of at least 233 MPs, while AUR, POT and SOS alone can only muster 134.
In the meantime, however, the media in Bucharest is talking about the already increasing dissatisfaction of the Social Democrats, who accuse their coalition partners of disregarding their proposals. To protest the austerity measures assumed by the government, the Social-Democrats might abstain from voting. On the other hand, the Minister of Finance, Liberal Alexandru Nazare, reports that investors’ perception of Romania has changed for the better after the first fiscal package assumed by the government. Deputy Prime Minister Dragoş Anastasiu explained that the alternative to the measures would have resulted in harsher consequences for the economy and employees, and the recovery process would take as long as 15 years. If the motion passes on Monday, the government led by Ilie Bolojan will be dismissed. Otherwise, the fiscal package challenged by the opposition will be adopted. The initiators themselves expect the motion will not obtain a majority vote in Parliament, therefore, they announced that, subsequently, they will challenge the fiscal measures at the Constitutional Court. (VP)
