September 18, 2026
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 18.09.2026, 13:55
Cabinet. MEP Siegfried Mureşan, designated by President Nicuşor Dan for the position of Prime Minister of Romania, has announced that he has begun work and will transparently communicate every step of the processPresident Nicuşor Dan says he will sign the decree nominating Siegfried Mureşan for the prime minister position on Saturday, with publication in the Official Gazette on Monday. From the moment of publication, Siegfried Mureşan has 10 days to negotiate with parliamentary parties in order to secure the needed votes. Liberal leader and current interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has announced that the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, who have nominated Siegfried Mureșan for the post, will immediately begin talks to form a parliamentary majority. Sorin Grindeanu, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, has voiced surprise at the nomination and said his party would not vote for an executive led by Mureșan. The same stance was adopted by the nationalist opposition represented by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, who views the president’s new proposal as a failure. Siegfried Mureșan needs the votes of 233 MPs, but the three parties backing him together hold 170 MP seats. If he fails to secure enough backing, Romania will move significantly closer to early elections.
Summit. President Nicușor Dan is today attending the opening summit of the Carpathian Integration Initiative in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine, at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president’s office in Bucharest announced. A series of related events will take place on the sidelines of the summit, including the Carpathian Economic Forum and the Youth Forum. The Economic Forum in Ukraine aims to bring together representatives from the countries crossed by the Carpathian Mountains, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine, alongside other key stakeholders in regional cooperation. The main goal of the summit is to coordinate efforts to harness the Carpathian region’s economic potential, boost its investment appeal, protect and promote cultural and natural heritage and enhance cohesion within the region. President Dan is expected to emphasise that Romania holds the longest segment of the Carpathian arc, accounting for over half of the mountain range’s total area across Europe. Before the meeting, Nicușor Dan said the summit is important for Romania both from the perspective of the ethnic Romanian minority in Ukraine and from an economic standpoint. He added that if Romania and Ukraine are better connected, “the minority will be able to better express its identity.”
Arrests. A Bucharest court has ordered the 30-day pre-trial detention of four more protesters who attacked law enforcement officers during Tuesday’s demonstrations outside the government headquarters in the centre of Bucharest. Although the protest was staged by farmers, who distanced themselves from the violent demonstrators. Another man was placed under house arrest. To date, five men are in temporary custody and another five placed under house arrest, 55 were taken to police headquarters, and 33 administrative sanctions were issued. Among those placed under house arrest is the man who instigated the violence, a well-known supporter of former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, himself a pro-Russian extremist and apologist for interwar fascists. The protesters are accused of attacking law enforcement officers with metal pipes, clubs and throwing at them objects such as curbstones, bottles, and crowd control barriers.
Handball. Romanian champions CS Dinamo Bucharest drew 25 all in their away match against the Danish side SAH Aarhus on Thursday evening, in Group E of the men’s handball Champions League. In the group’s other match, Montpellier Handball lost at home to defending champions Barca. In the third round, Dinamo will play another away match in Barcelona on October 8. (CM)
