Romanian MPs elect new heads of upper and lower legislative chambers

Romanian members of Parliament elected new presidents for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies after negotiations within the new ruling coalition formed between the Social Democrats (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Hungarian minority party UDMR, and the ethnic minorities group.

The coalition elected PNL interim leader Ilie Bolojan as the new head of the Senate, while Social Democrat Ciprian Șerban was elected as the president of the Chamber of Deputies. Bolojan received 70 votes out of 114 cast, while Șerban secured 195 out of 285 votes.

Ciprian Șerban, 39, is a deputy from Neamț County and has served as vice-leader of the PSD parliamentary group. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at the Petre Andrei University in Iași and holds a master's degree from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. In 2018, he attended the National Defense College, specializing in security and leadership studies.

During the last parliamentary sessions of the previous legislature, Șerban was the leader of the PSD group and also served as vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, according to Euronews Romania.

Ilie Bolojan, born in Bihor County, studied at the "Emanuil Gojdu" High School in Oradea (1983–1987). He pursued two university degrees, completing studies in Mechanics at the "Traian Vuia" Polytechnic Institute in Timișoara (1988–1993) and in Mathematics at the University of Timișoara (1990–1993). Career-wise, he progressed from local councilor (1996-2004) to county councilor (2004-2005), prefect (2005-2007), mayor of Oradea (2008-2020), and president of the Bihor County Council (2020-2024).

Bolojan was recently elected as a senator in the December 1 parliamentary elections and the interim leader of PNL.

The new heads of the Romanian Parliament had challengers. Dumitru Coarnă, part of the SOS Romania party founded by far-right politician Diana Sosoaca, also ran for the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. Mircea Chelaru (AUR) and Cosmina Nadia Cerva (SOS România) ran for the position of Senate president.

The newly-formed coalition has a secure but not comfortable majority in the Parliament. In the Chamber of Deputies, the alliance has 177 votes out of 331 MPs, while the majority threshold is 167. At the Senate level, the coalition has only 69 votes out of 134, with the majority threshold being 68, according to Antena 3.