What will Romania’s new government look like?
After Ilie Bolojan’s cabinet was sacked through a no-confidence vote on May 5th, a new government is being prepared in Bucharest
Sorin Iordan, 22.06.2026, 14:00
Designated by President Nicuşor Dan to forge a new government a week ago, upon the sacking through a censure motion of the cabinet headed by Ilie Bolojan and after talks that revealed irreconcilable positions among the pro-Western parties, the Liberal Adrian Veştea submitted his ruling programme and the list of future ministers to Parliament on Sunday. That happened after the PSD, the main party in Parliament, had decided to join the ruling coalition and endorse the investment of the new Executive.
On the same day, the newly elected board of the National Liberal Party, PNL, reiterated its decision not to support the future government and recommended its MPs to leave the plenary hall during the voting. Adrian Veştea has decided to go ahead hoping to muster all the 233 votes needed with support from smaller Parliamentary groups with which he recently held talks after the USR and UDMR had earlier announced their decision not to endorse the new cabinet, as well as the AUR, an ultra-nationalist party, which was expelled from talks. The government formula thought by Adrian Veştea – member of a liberal faction, which favours the ruling alongside the Social-Democrats who contested the Liberal Ilie Bolojan – includes three deputy Prime Ministers, nine Social-Democratic ministers, four Liberal ministers from the aforementioned faction, and four independents.
The deputies are Marian Neacşu with the PSD, who will also occupy the seat of Interior Minister, Alina Gorgiu with the PNL and the independent Diana Morar.
The Social–Democrats are assuming coordination in some key areas and came with the ministers, who, according to the communiqué released by the PSD, have already proved their professional capabilities.
Some of these held the same seats in the former pro-Western government, the PSD was part of together with the PNL, USR and UDMR. These are Radu Marinescu with the Justice Ministry, Florin Barbu with the Ministry of Agriculture, Bogdan Ivan with the Ministry of Energy, Florin Manole with the Ministry of Labour and Alexandru Rogobete with the Ministry of Healthcare. The new ones are Mihai Ghigiu with the Ministry of Environment, Romeo Lungu with the Ministry of Development and Ionut Vulpescu with the Ministry of Culture. Monica Anisie with the Ministry of Education and Research, Sorin Cîmpeanu with the Ministry of Defence, Cristian Pistol with the Ministry of Transports and Eduard Mititelu with the Ministry of Digitization; all these come from the PNL, whereas the four independents are Alexandru Nazare with the Finance Ministry, Luca Niculescu with Foreign Affairs, Florin Zaharia with the Ministry of Investments and European Projects and Marian Bârgău respectively as Minister of the Economy. Adrian Vestea’s ruling programme has five top priorities: returning to institutional normalcy, stepping up the process of attracting money from the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience, maintaining the trust of foreign partners and the country’s rating, unblocking the projects in an advanced execution state and stepping up works on the strategic ones.
(bill)
