A refusal to back the new cabinet

On 18 October 2026, AUR leader George Simion announced on Facebook that his party would not vote for the government of prime minister-designate Luca Niculescu. He said the refusal would stand even if other parliamentary groups abandoned their own positions and voted the cabinet through. Simion also said AUR would not distance itself from its principles, its political creed or Calin Georgescu. The post came while the party was facing what Simion described as a campaign of pressure ahead of the parliamentary vote on the cabinet.

“Even if everyone betrays and votes this government, we still won't vote it!”

A pig's head at the gate

Marius Lulea, one of AUR's co-founders, filed a police complaint on the morning of 18 October after finding a pig's head at the gate of his property in Tunari. Police in Otopeni opened a criminal case at his request, and a team of criminal investigators visited the site and asked for footage from surveillance cameras in the area. Lulea told G4Media that clear images of the people involved and of the vehicle used could allow them to be identified. According to HotNews, Lulea also reported a threatening poster stuck to his gas meter, and he said similar stickers had been placed in front of several people who publicly oppose Simion. According to ProTV, a week before the pig's head incident Lulea had found a poster on his fence showing a cartoon character that he said signified a criminal.

“In the practice of mafia-style structures, a pig's head means a death threat.”

Lulea said he had named Simion when asked who might be behind the incident, adding that he did not believe Simion had acted directly but through intermediaries.

Simion's response and the dispute over the link

In the same Facebook post, Simion said he had become the target of a campaign, pointing to television coverage, a former colleague's alleged revelations and a transcript he described as part of a string of unfounded accusations. He wrote that the greatest danger to Romania was himself, and he argued that people trying to provoke enough noise would not make the party give way. He also said Romanians would not forget who had governed the country over the past 35 years. Calling on the state to act in Lulea's case and in all other serious cases that had targeted the party recently, he said:

“I demand quick investigations and evidence, not televised verdicts.”

ProTV reported that Simion did not respond to its request for comment on Lulea's allegations, and AUR told the broadcaster that the whole affair was a staging. G4Media described Simion's link between the pig's head and pressure over the vote as made without evidence.

What is still open

The criminal case is open, and the reporting does not say that anyone has been charged. Whether the people in the surveillance footage can be identified remains to be seen, since investigators had requested that material from the area. The parliamentary vote on the Niculescu cabinet is still pending, and the articles do not give a date for it. The two accounts remain opposed: Simion presents the affair as pressure to secure votes, while Lulea has pointed to Simion through intermediaries.