A New Government in Bucharest

Following December 6th elections, Romania has a new Government, with full powers and supported by a centre-right coalition formed by the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. On Wednesday, the new majority, born after tough negotiations, which entailed a harmonisation of governing programs and sharing ministerial and parliamentary posts, managed to validate the 18 ministers and to have the new Government sworn in. The new Prime Minister is Florin Cîţu, the one who, as a Minister of Finance in the former Liberal minority Cabinet, managed to avoid the budget collapse that many had been forecasting, against the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic.

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Ştefan Stoica, 24.12.2020, 11:08

Following December 6th elections, Romania has a new Government, with full powers and supported by a centre-right coalition formed by the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. On Wednesday, the new majority, born after tough negotiations, which entailed a harmonisation of governing programs and sharing ministerial and parliamentary posts, managed to validate the 18 ministers and to have the new Government sworn in. The new Prime Minister is Florin Cîţu, the one who, as a Minister of Finance in the former Liberal minority Cabinet, managed to avoid the budget collapse that many had been forecasting, against the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic.

Critics say, however, that Florin Cîţu burdened Romania with an excessive debt. To the new Premier, the short-term objectives of the new Government are clear, just like the country development model. Florin Cîţu:

Both myself and my team will do our best to fulfil the two objectives that I have mentioned already and with which I’m sure all political parties agree: to get as fast as we can over the health crisis and to bring the economy back on its feet. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the need for a new governing and economic and social development model. Against this background, the center-right coalition comes with a governing program that combines crisis exit measures with long-term development policies, aimed at building a normal Romania, which every Romanian dreams of. The new model of economic and social development is focused on investments as an engine for economic development, which would generate the biggest growth in the European Union over the 2021-2024 period.

The main actor of the parliamentary opposition will be the Social Democratic Party, winner of the parliamentary elections, but politically isolated. The Social-Democrats have harshly criticised the government’s program. Their head, Marcel Ciolacu, has announced that the Social Democratic Party will make a total opposition, a warning that targeted almost directly his Liberal counterpart, Ludovic Orban:

The Social Democratic Party will never endorse such a government. Romanians have just one ally left in the Romanian Parliament – the Social Democratic Party! We will defend their rights, we will fight you everywhere, in committees and in plenum. Mr. Orban, remember what I’m telling you here, in Romania’s Parliament: You have hoped to save yourself, but your darkest nightmare is just beginning!

President Klaus Iohannis has warned the new ministers that people are expecting now to see the promised public reforms become reality, the state restructured, and bureaucracy curbed. In office since 2014 and in his second term, the president is offered, for the first time, the chance of a partnership with a government supported by a stable majority, built around the National Liberal Party, the party he comes from. (M. Ignatescu)