Diplomat Luca Niculescu appointed Prime Minister of Romania

A Romania is governed by an interim executive after the then Prime Minister, liberal-conserver Ilie Bolojan, lost a motion of censure filed against his coalition, formed by four parties.

At the age of 55 and without party membership, Niculescu has been in office after being Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and since 2002 he has been coordinating the process of accession of Romania to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In explaining his decision, the Romanian President highlighted Niculescu’s diplomatic profile as “a man whose job is to harmonise positions”.

He also stressed that his appointment represents “the guarantee” that the executive will maintain Romania’s pro-Western direction, as well as respecting the financial discipline and international commitments made by the State.

The Head of State added that the appointed Prime Minister will have full freedom to agree with the various political forces the structure of the new Government, either through a political formula or a technocratic profile.

For his part, Niculescu thanked him for his confidence and recalled that the country is going through a long period of political instability, aggravated by a complex economic and international context.

The candidate warned that he cannot promise miracles and indicated that his immediate priority will be to build a solid parliamentary majority to support a government “firmly committed to the European and Euro-Atlantic orientation” of the country, member of the European Union and NATO.

In the coming days, Niculescu will begin a round of contacts with political forces with parliamentary representation, in an attempt to negotiate the foundations of a majority and agree on a “realist” government programme.

A few minutes after the announcement, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) – the greatest force in parliament –, Sorin Grindeanu, criticized the Romanian President’s decision to continue “defying parliamentary mathematics”.

Grindeanu said that, although the party will examine the proposal, it will not give “a blank vote” to a formula that, in his opinion, would represent “a new political adventure”.