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Romania's government survives no-confidence vote over reform plans
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 15, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 15, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Romania's government survived a no-confidence vote amid internal tensions over economic reforms and judicial pension changes crucial for EU funds.
BUCHAREST, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Romania's broad coalition government survived a no-confidence vote on Monday over its economic policies and reform plans but its biggest party voted with the hard-right opposition in a separate motion against a cabinet minister.
The coalition has now survived six no-confidence votes since taking power half a year ago, mostly over tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at reducing the EU's largest budget deficit and preserving Romania's investment-grade rating.
But the four parties have so far struggled to agree on reform measures at every step and the budget plan for 2026 has been delayed until January.
The leftist Social Democrats, the largest party and key to maintaining a pro-European majority, have threatened to quit unless Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan agrees to raise the minimum wage next year.
They have also demanded the dismissal of Environment Minister Diana Buzoianu over a water supply shortage earlier this month. Buzoianu, from the junior centre-right Save Romania Union, is reforming the ministry’s forestry and water agencies, long seen as politicised.
On Monday, Social Democrat lawmakers voted to keep the government in power but in a separate non-binding motion against Buzoianu they sided with the opposition.
She has declined to quit and both Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and centrist President Nicusor Dan have said they saw no reason for any cabinet minister to resign at present.
JUDICIAL PENSIONS
The government is also trying to raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors and cap their pensions in a second attempt after the country's Constitutional Court rejected an earlier version of the bill in October.
The court, which has a history of blocking pension cuts, will rule on the latest challenge on Dec. 28.
A second failure could weaken the fragile four-party coalition. Judicial pension reform is a condition for accessing European Union recovery and resilience funds.
The government plans to gradually raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors to 65 from about 50 over 15 years and cap pensions at 70% of final salary.
The no-confidence motion comes amid street protests after hundreds of judges and prosecutors alleged systemic abuses in the justice system.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie. Editing by Mark Potter and Nick Zieminski)
Judicial pensions refer to retirement benefits provided to judges and prosecutors, often based on their years of service and salary, which are subject to specific regulations and reforms.
An investment-grade rating is a classification given to bonds or securities that are considered to have a low risk of default, indicating a strong likelihood of timely repayment of principal and interest.
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