Socialists, right-wingers seek Romanian PM ouster
Romania’s leftist Social Democratic Party and the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians jointly submitted a no-confidence motion on Tuesday as the two political parties seek to topple liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
The PSD, Romania’s largest political party that was until last week part of the coalition government, and the opposition AUR party, submitted the motion to Parliament, a day after the two parties announced the joint effort to bring down Bolojan, who is from the centre-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, less than a year after his pro-European coalition was sworn in.
The PSD said in a statement that it had secured enough support for the motion against Bolojan.
AUR leader George Simion told a news conference Tuesday that the motion had 251 signatures and vowed that it will pass “without any problems.”
The no-confidence motion will likely be voted in parliament next week.
The development follows PSD’s withdrawal last week from the coalition, which left Bolojan without a parliamentary majority and plunged the European Union country into a fresh political crisis.
Romania has faced a long period of instability after a presidential election was annulled in December 2024, and it is currently grappling with one of the highest budget deficits in the EU, rampant inflation and a technical recession.
Sorin Grindeanu, the president of PSD, said Monday that “there are many things that divide us… but there is a common goal, that of voting for this motion and toppling the Bolojan government.”
“I want to be very clear, it is a parliamentary initiative, it is an initiative that currently has support beyond political colour,” Grindeanu said, adding that the motion was supported by the far-right nationalist SOS Romania party, and other right-wing groups.
When the governing coalition was voted in last June, it pledged to make reducing the budget deficit a top priority.
The PSD has often found itself at loggerheads with Bolojan over some of the austerity measures, which have included tax hikes, public sector wage and pension freezes and cutting public spending and public administration jobs.
