PSD proposes Marian Neacșu, convicted in 2016, for interior minister in Niculescu cabinet

The nomination

The Social Democrats' National Council met on Wednesday, 14 October, at 16:00 at Vila Lac to set the party's position on the cabinet of premier-designate Luca Niculescu. Reports say the PSD has decided to enter government and has put forward 11 names for ministries, ranging from former ministers to parliamentarians and public administration figures. The party's choice for interior minister and vice-premier is Marian Neacșu, a 62-year-old economist and one of the most senior figures in the party. He would be the only vice-premier in the Niculescu government and would also take over the Interior portfolio. Parliament still has to invest the government before any of these appointments take effect.

Neacșu was born on 27 May 1964 and graduated in economics from the University of Craiova in 1987. He entered Parliament as a PSD deputy for Ialomița in 2008 and was re-elected in 2012, later serving as vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies. He was secretary general of the Government from 2021 to 2023 under Nicolae Ciucă, and vice-premier from 2023 to 2026 under Marcel Ciolacu and Ilie Bolojan. He was also one of two authors, with Petrișor Peiu of AUR, of the censure motion that brought down the Bolojan government.

Conviction and rehabilitation

In December 2013 prosecutors sent Neacșu to trial while he was a PSD deputy, charging him with conflict of interest. They alleged he asked for his daughter to be hired at his parliamentary office and endorsed her employment contract, under which she earned income from July 2009 to December 2012. In February 2016 the High Court of Cassation and Justice gave him a six-month suspended sentence after prosecutors appealed a first-instance criminal fine of 2,000 lei. He was later rehabilitated. Liviu Dragnea, then PSD leader, said at the time that the conviction would keep Neacșu from standing again for the party, citing its integrity code.

Asked about the conviction in July 2025, PSD president Sorin Grindeanu pointed to the rehabilitation and said:

There were dozens of parliamentarians in the same situation, as a result of a decision that said you were allowed to do this kind of thing.

Only days before the nomination, Grindeanu had called for USR leader Dominic Fritz to resign while using the slogan 'no convicts in public office'.

Earlier controversies

In 2019 Neacșu was named vice-president of the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE). USR took the appointment to the Constitutional Court in July 2019, through deputy Cristina Prună, who argued he did not meet the seniority and professional experience requirements and cited the final conviction. Parliament had validated him in the post on 26 June 2019, and the court postponed its ruling several times. In November 2018 he had been expelled from the PSD after signing a letter from dissidents demanding Dragnea's resignation. In February 2019 he joined Victor Ponta's Pro România and ran its European election campaign, before returning to the PSD.

1. 2013-12Prosecutors send Neacșu to trial for conflict of interest
2. 2016-02High Court convicts him to six months suspended
3. 2018-11Expelled from the PSD
4. 2019-02Joins Victor Ponta's Pro România
5. Jun 26, 2019Parliament validates his ANRE appointment
6. 2019-07USR refers the appointment to the Constitutional Court

Other nominees and next steps

Separately, Luca Niculescu has proposed Dan Neculăescu for foreign minister. Neculăescu has been a diplomat since October 2002 and has served as Romania's ambassador and permanent representative to NATO since February 2022, a post he received under then-president Klaus Iohannis. Other names on the PSD list include Florin Barbu for agriculture, Alexandru Rogobete for health and Florin Manole for labour. Barbu and Rogobete both left their previous ministerial posts through resignation in April 2026. If invested, Neacșu would be the first interior minister in recent Romanian history with a final criminal conviction on record.