Romania’s centrist president has selected his adviser Eugen Tomac to serve as the country’s new prime minister on Thursday, attempting to resolve a political crisis that has halted government operations, threatened European Union funding access, and caused the national currency to hit historic lows.
The previous broad pro-European coalition administration fell apart last month after the leftist Social Democrats, its largest member party, pulled their backing from Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and aligned with far-right opposition forces in a vote of no confidence.
The government’s downfall, occurring less than twelve months after taking office, jeopardized ongoing efforts to reduce the European Union’s highest budget deficit and placed the nation’s investment-grade sovereign credit rating in danger.
The 44-year-old Tomac, who serves as a European Parliament member and heads a party without representation in Romania’s legislature, has been given a 10-day window to assemble a government and secure a parliamentary confidence vote.
His administration will be composed of technocrats, given that political parties have been unable to create a new coalition capable of achieving a parliamentary majority.
“Because parties did not get along, the only possible solution is a prime minister who is independent of the parliamentary parties,” the president told reporters.
The president outlined that a new government’s main objectives should include maintaining a pro-Western position, ensuring financial stability, implementing reforms to secure EU funding, and establishing clear budget plans for 2027.
If approved, the incoming government must rapidly execute reforms to access approximately 8.6 billion euros in EU recovery and resilience funding before Brussels’ August deadline and guarantee continued deficit reduction past 2026.
However, Tomac’s administration will likely face difficulties obtaining backing from a divided parliament for controversial reforms, including legislation establishing standards for public sector compensation.
“(The nomination) is a first attempt, we have no guarantees it will pass through parliament or that a majority has been negotiated,” stated Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.
“Even if it is confirmed, it will probably not be a long-lived government.”
Romania’s upcoming parliamentary election isn’t scheduled until 2028. The country has never conducted an early election, and analysts suggest the probability of one occurring now is minimal since the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) currently leads in public opinion surveys.
