Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 20, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleRomanian President Nicusor Dan nominates Ilie Bolojan as PM to form a coalition government and address the EU's largest budget deficit.
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Centrist President Nicusor Dan nominated Liberal Party leader Ilie Bolojan as Romania's prime minister on Friday after weeks of negotiations on forming a coalition government to tackle the largest budget deficit in the European Union.
Bolojan will continue talks with four pro-European parties over cabinet appointments and fiscal measures and he is expected to ask parliament to give his government its vote of confidence next week.
The incoming government must lower the fiscal deficit from last year's 9.3% of economic output to avoid a ratings downgrade from the last rung of investment grade and unblock billions of euros worth of EU funds.
It will likely include the centre-left Social Democrats, the country's biggest party, as well as Bolojan's Liberals, centre-right Save Romania Union and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.
"It is in Romania's interest that the government is supported by a solid majority, and the parties understand this," Dan said.
The four parties and the president spent weeks wrangling over ways to lower the deficit, hesitating over unpopular tax hikes Brussels, ratings agencies and analysts say are inevitable but which are likely to further bolster the rising far-right.
The fiscal package will likely save around 30 billion lei ($6.9 billion) and entail an equal mix of spending cuts, postponed investments and tax hikes.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Alan Charlish and Toby Chopra)
Ilie Bolojan, the leader of the Liberal Party, was nominated as Romania's prime minister.
The new government must lower the fiscal deficit from last year's 9.3% of economic output.
The incoming government is likely to include the Social Democrats, Bolojan's Liberals, the Save Romania Union, and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.
The fiscal package will likely save around 30 billion lei and will involve a mix of spending cuts, postponed investments, and tax hikes.
President Nicusor Dan emphasized that it is in Romania's interest for the government to be supported by a solid majority.
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