Romanian Governing Coalition Decides to Postpone ‘PM Rotation’

Romanian Governing coalition in power, formed by the Socialists, Liberals and Hungarian Minority, had an understanding when they took power in November 2021, after the former government, formed by Liberals and Progressists, failed the confidence motion.

The agreement was that Nicolae Ciuca, the current Prime Minister, is to rule the Government until May 25th, when he would resign and let his Socialist colleague, the head of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, be assigned as Prime Minister until the end of the current political mandate of the Parliament. This agreement is broken, as Ciuca decided not to resign.

The presidents of the three ruling parties appeared on national tv stations assuming this postponement in rotation. Marcel Ciolacu, who was expected to be Prime Minister this month, has to wait until the teachers’ strike is over. It could be weeks or months.

Nicolae Ciuca has his second questionable political moment. His first was precisely when he entered politics. As a former Chief of Army Staff, Ciuca promised not to enter politics when he retired. He failed to keep his promise and joined the National Liberal Party. Soon after, he became president of the Liberals and Prime Minister. Such a brilliant political career, right? Wrong, as political pundits say, Cuca is Romania’s President’s political puppet.

His second questionable moment was when he failed to keep his promise and resigned from office. Both moments show how much trust you can have in hearing a promise from him.

On the other hand, Marcel Ciolacu seems like a Socialist who dances when Liberals play a piece of specific music. Far from showing the same solid political posture of the former Socialist leaders, Ciolacu gave up any form of criticism of decisions taken by Liberals and preferred to remain silent but in power.

No solid opposition in Romania makes all these possible. The current Governing Coalition will keep power until 2024; no other alliances can oppose them until the next elections. In this context, Romania seems like a stable democracy from the outside, but people started noticing it’s far from that.