Nicușor Dan calls Monday talks as Romania marks 69 days without government

The meeting

President Nicușor Dan has summoned the leaders of Romania’s former governing coalition to talks on Monday, 13 July, at 09:00 at Cotroceni Palace. The Presidential Administration confirmed the meeting on 12 July. Invited are Social Democratic Party (PSD) president Sorin Grindeanu, National Liberal Party (PNL) president Ilie Bolojan, Save Romania Union (USR) president Dominic Fritz, Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) president Kelemen Hunor, and the leader of the parliamentary group of national minorities, Varujan Pambuccian.

Two months of deadlock

Romania has been without a fully functioning government since 5 May, when the Bolojan cabinet was dismissed by a no-confidence motion adopted with 281 votes. The motion was tabled by the PSD after it withdrew its support, together with the opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). Monday will mark 69 days of political paralysis. An interim government led by Ilie Bolojan has remained in office, but its powers are limited and it cannot push major legislation through Parliament.

After Veștea’s defeat, PSD proposed its president Sorin Grindeanu, while a centre-right coalition of PNL, USR, and UDMR rallied behind liberal MEP Siegfried Mureşan. Neither has yet secured the necessary votes.

Dan’s skepticism and public demand

Speaking in Ankara on Wednesday after the NATO summit, President Dan made clear he saw no quick fix. “Right now, strictly right now, I don’t feel a solution is emerging,” he said. He insisted the parliamentary parties must take ownership and publicly declare their proposals.

At Monday’s meeting I want each leader to say what majority solution they see, and I will ask them not to tell only me, but to tell you as well, because they bear the main responsibility.

Dan stressed he would not nominate a candidate just to tick a procedural box. “I will not propose a prime minister I know has no chance of securing a majority,” he said, noting that both Grindeanu and Mureşan currently lack the required backing.

A chain of failed designations

The political crisis has already seen several false starts. The president’s first choice, his own adviser and MEP Eugen Tomac, was put forward as a technocrat but withdrew after failing to rally support. In mid-June, Dan designated PNL’s Adrian Veştea as prime minister. The designation of Veștea came after the Tomac withdrawal and was intended to build liberal unity, but PNL’s leadership refused to back its own member. The move drew a sharp rebuke from PNL leader Bolojan, who called it “an act hostile” and said he had not been consulted.

The attempt to impose a prime minister from within a party’s ranks, without even prior consultation and after all decisions taken unanimously by the party’s bodies, violates every principle of loyal political cooperation.

When Parliament voted on Veştea’s proposed cabinet, it received only 189 votes, well short of the majority needed.

What comes next

Monday’s consultations at Cotroceni are the latest in a series that have so far yielded nothing. President Dan maintains that building a majority is the parties’ job, not his. With both rival candidates unable to attract enough support and no obvious compromise on the horizon, political analysts are increasingly raising the possibility of early elections, though no formal steps have been taken. The meeting is expected to reveal whether any party is prepared to break the deadlock.