Final balance sheet

Ilie Bolojan, the interim prime minister, presented his balance sheet at Palatul Victoria on Monday, 19 October 2026, at what was described as his last press conference in office. He said his mandate, which began almost 16 months earlier, would very probably end on Tuesday, 20 October. He recalled that in June 2025 the budget deficit stood at 9.3%, growth rested on consumption and debt, the PNRR was blocked and the risk of a payment default was real. He told reporters that the deficit had fallen in the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, and that he had changed no figures and made no promises without cover. He summed up the handover this way:

“I am handing the next government a Romania on the path to proper recovery, with the experience of governing without lies, without populism and with respect for people.”

VAT increase and the president

Bolojan defended the VAT increase as a necessary step that brought urgent revenue into the budget. Asked whether the measure had opened a rift with President Nicușor Dan, who had pledged during the election campaign not to raise VAT during his mandate, he said that all decision-makers in Romania had known the increase was needed. He described his cooperation with the head of state as institutional. Asked whether the president could have supported him more, Bolojan said any help a difficult task receives from partners is welcome, while adding that each member of the government, including himself as prime minister, carries responsibility for its work.

“We were forced to start with the VAT increase. We had to bring money into the budget urgently and reduce the deficit.”

He added that some decisions had been difficult and that he had hidden nothing from Romanians.

PSD and the spending blame

Bolojan blamed the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for the fall of his government. He said the cabinet was dismissed when PSD could no longer bear the danger of the old system being dismantled through fair rules and allocations, not because the reforms had failed. He accused the party of heavy spending in 2023 and 2024 without any cover in real state revenue, a policy he said emptied the treasury.

“The biggest danger of sabotage for any government in which the PSD is present comes from the Social Democratic Party itself.”

He warned that if this way of managing public money continued in the following years, the anti-system vote in 2028 would be overwhelming. The remarks widen the rift with PSD, a former coalition partner.

Structural problems for the next cabinet

Bolojan said he had left no debts but that Romania has structural problems, and he listed four areas he expects the incoming cabinet to face. The largest budget pressures, he said, come from court litigation and energy compensation schemes, with a ruling obliging the government to pay more than 5 billion lei and thousands of other lawsuits generated over the years. He argued the problem will not be solved without legislation that stops such cases, which would have meant adopting a unified salary law for the budget sector. In health, he said over 6.5 million Romanians paid the health contribution while 16.5 million received services, a system that could not function, and that 10.5 million now contribute. Finally, he warned that the Transport Ministry had signed contracts worth billions of euros while real allocations were several times smaller.

Vote on Tuesday

Parliament meets on Tuesday, 20 October, in joint session to vote on the government of prime minister-designate Luca Niculescu, which needs at least 233 votes to pass. Bolojan also asked his PNL colleagues to resign from all posts in the administration. Luca Niculescu could become the fifth technocrat prime minister in post-December Romanian history, after Theodor Stolojan, Mugur Isărescu, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu and Dacian Cioloș.

Bolojan's own mandate is expected to end the same day.