A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 25.05.2026, 13:55
Government. Romanian President Nicuşor Dan is expected to appoint the next prime minister this week, following further consultations with parliamentary parties. Previous talks ended without a concrete outcome regarding the formation of a majority capable of supporting the executive branch. The parties that were part of the former self-proclaimed pro-Western coalition have failed to reach an agreement and are unwilling to ally with AUR (the nationalist opposition), so negotiations continue. Despite political differences, the PSD, PNL, USR, and UDMR have signed an agreement committing to adopt the new public sector pay law by the end of the parliamentary session, i.e., the end of June. The law is a milestone committed to by Romania through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, on which a tranche of over 700 million euros depends.
NRRP. Mayors across Romania whose municipalities are implementing the 15,000 projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan must submit, by Tuesday, complete and verifiable information regarding the actual progress of these projects. The request was made yesterday by Acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan during a videoconference with prefects, as some components of the PNRR are still under negotiation with the European Commission. Technical discussions will continue on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare reports reflecting the situation on the ground, which will be sent to Brussels, where negotiations are set to conclude on Sunday. Bolojan also announced that the drafts of the nine laws corresponding to reforms committed to by Romania through the PNRR—on which access to over 7.5 billion euros depends—will be submitted to Parliament this week.
SAFE. The emergency ordinance on the management of the SAFE program, intended for defense investments, is set to be debated by the Senate in Bucharest, as the first chamber to consider it. The document still requires a final report from the Budget and Finance Committee. The SAFE agreement, recently signed by the European Commission and Romania, provides access to over 16 billion euros in funding, the second-largest allocation in the European Union after Poland. The bill has, however, been challenged by the Social Democrats, who recently moved into the opposition, at the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that many measures are unrelated to the Army’s procurement program.
Film. The film “Fjord,” directed by Cristian Mungiu, has been included by the Romanian government on the list of strategic cultural projects so that it can receive funding for the international campaign to promote the film for the Oscars. The announcement was made by the acting Minister of Culture, Demeter András, after “Fjord” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend, granting it privileged status and maximum visibility among members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This is not the Romanian director’s first success at Cannes; in 2007, his film “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” was awarded the top prize. Mungiu has thus joined the exclusive circle of filmmakers who have won the Palme d’Or twice, an elite group of 10 world-class directors, including Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica. The success at Cannes also drew praise from the presidents of Romania and the Republic of Moldova, Nicuşor Dan and Maia Sandu, respectively.
Tennis. Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea defeated the young French player Ksenia Efremova (17) 6-3, 6-1 in Paris in the first round of the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament. Cîrstea (36), ranked 18th in the world, needed one hour and 10 minutes to prevail against an opponent ranked 625th in the world who received a wild card. Cîrstea secured 70 WTA points, and in the second round she will face the winner of the match between Croatian Petra Marcinko and German Eva Lys. Also in the first round, Romanian Gabriela Ruse retired with the score at 7-6 (7/5), 2-1 in favor of Poland’s Magdalena Frech. Ruse (28 years old, WTA No. 75) withdrew after one hour and 32 minutes, having led 2-0 in the first set and 3-0 in the tiebreak. (MI)
