On Monday, June 23, a broad pro-European coalition in Romania approved the government of Iliye Bolozhan. He was nominated by newly elected President Nicosor Dan. This ended 47 days of political uncertainty caused by the resignation of the previous Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the crisis surrounding the presidential election in Romania.
This is reported by the Romanian media Digi24 and the Reuters agency.
The coalition is formed by four political forces: the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party (whose leader became Prime Minister), the Union for the Salvation of Romania and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania. The coalition also has the support of deputies from national minorities who have quotas in the Romanian Parliament. This together provides it with about 67% of support in Parliament. Three far-right parties remain in opposition.
In the coalition agreement, the parties agreed on rotating the post of prime minister. In 2027, Bolozhan will hand over the powers of prime minister to a representative from the Social Democratic Party.
The main task for the new government is to reduce the budget deficit. The government plans to introduce a temporary tax on "excess profits" of banks from 2026, increase excise duties and property taxes, introduce new fees on profits from cryptocurrencies and social networks, increase taxes on dividends and tax pensions exceeding 4 thousand lei (about 38 thousand hryvnias). They also plan to cut about 20% of jobs in the public sector.
Finance Minister Alexandru Lazare said the government will discuss all proposed measures with the European Commission. They are planned to be approved from August.
Presidential elections in Romania
The first round of the presidential election in Romania was held on November 24, 2024. Far-right politician Calin Georgescu and liberal pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi advanced to the second round. Lasconi beat the countryʼs incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu by just 2,700 votes.
Georgescuʼs leadership was unexpected, and he was accused of influencing the election through TikTok. Because of this, the European Commission even asked the platform to provide information on how the social network has reduced the risk of inauthentic or automated use of its service, as well as to list the risks arising from its recommended content system.
Romanian intelligence has found that the TikTok account bogpr, used by Romanian citizen Bogdan Pescir, participated in financing Georgescuʼs campaign. He made payments totaling $381 000 between October 24 and November 24 to users of TikTok accounts that participated in Georgescuʼs promotion.
The Constitutional Court of Romania on December 6, 2024, annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election.
After the re-election, pro-European candidate Nicușor Dan became the president of Romania. In the second round, he defeated far-right politician George Simion.
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