Romanian president announces new PM designation on October 5

Romanian president Nicușor Dan announced that he would make a fourth prime ministerial designation on October 5 following consultations with parliamentary parties. He made the announcement on September 30, after the Parliament rejected the government proposed by prime minister-designate Siegfried Mureșan.

Speaking from Prague, president Dan said he still had several options and warned against including the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) in any governing coalition.

Dan explained his opposition to AUR joining a governing majority by referring to promises made during his presidential campaign, including Romania’s pro-Western geopolitical orientation and fiscal discipline. He also argued that AUR in government would endanger Romania’s relations with the European Union and NATO allies.

President Dan pinpointed his strategy aimed at a PSD-centred government. First, he implied that he expects the centre-right parties behind PM-designate Siegfried Mureșan to hold internal consultations and reconsider their position. The three parties have so far ruled out accepting the Social Democratic Party (PSD) as a governing partner. Thus, while not saying so explicitly, President Dan urged the Liberal Party (PNL), the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and the Save Romania Union (USR) either to join or at least support a government formed around PSD.

Secondly, Dan said that the far-right AUR should not be part of the governing coalition. Taken together, the two suggestions indicate that the president is still seeking to bring together, in a new configuration, the former four-party coalition that governed from June 2025, but without the reformist Liberal wing associated with former PM Ilie Bolojan and, most likely, without USR.

The logic behind President Dan’s strategy

Dan’s strategy serves the interests of both the president himself and PSD. For Dan, a government supported by PSD and the centre-right parties would remove the immediate threat of parliamentary suspension, which AUR has called for. For PSD, it would provide a route back into government.

However, for PSD to abstain from negotiating a governing majority with AUR, potentially involving parliamentary support for Dan’s suspension, the president would have to deliver on his promise to bring PNL back into a PSD-controlled governing coalition.

Dan’s previous three prime ministerial designations – Eugen Tomac, Adrian Veştea and Siegfried Mureșan – all failed to produce a government, although Tomac withdrew before his proposed cabinet reached a parliamentary vote. But all three past designations were made to convince Liberals back into a centrist coalition controlled by Social Democrats.

If Dan fails to persuade enough PNL lawmakers to diverge from the party’s official strategy, the president may have no alternative but to call early elections.