Romania gets a new government: Luca Niculescu's cabinet wins parliament's confidence vote
Romania's parliament backed Prime Minister Luca Niculescu's cabinet on Tuesday with 280 votes in favour and 58 against, well above the 233 needed, ending more than five months of political crisis and caretaker rule.
Romania has a government with full powers again. In a joint sitting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, 20 October, lawmakers approved Prime Minister Luca Niculescu's cabinet and its governing programme. According to the official result read out in the chamber, 355 of the 464 deputies and senators were present and 338 valid votes were cast: 280 in favour and 58 against. The Constitution requires a majority of all members of parliament, 233 votes, so the cabinet cleared the threshold comfortably.
The vote closes more than five months of political crisis in which Romania was run by an interim government. Niculescu thanked the Social Democrats (PSD) for their support, as well as the National Liberals (PNL), the Hungarian minority party UDMR, the national minorities group and the individual lawmakers who voted for him. UDMR backed the cabinet in parliament but did not take seats in it. USR had announced it would vote against, and the debate before the secret ballot was tense, with sharp exchanges between government and opposition speakers.
Speaking right after the result, Niculescu said Romania was 'coming out of six months of crisis' and that the new team would get to work immediately, with the first cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening. He said the long deadlock had cost Romanians through higher bills, rising unemployment and a weaker economic position, and described his cabinet as a mix of experienced politicians and independents from academia and the arts. The ministers still have to be sworn in at the Cotroceni Palace before they formally take office. Among the urgent files waiting for them are the 2027 budget and inflation, which the National Bank of Romania expects to end the year above its earlier 6.1% forecast.