Romania launches government reshuffle, new PM incoming

A government reshuffle began in Romania on June 12, following the resignation of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă as part of a planned rotation within the ruling coalition.

Social Democrats chief Marcel Ciolacu is expected to become the new prime minister, with a vote in parliament set to take place later this week. Former Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu has been nominated by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis to serve as interim prime minister “until the formation of the new government.”

Iohannis will hold consultations with the various parliamentary political groups later Tuesday to choose the next head of government, Politico reports.

According to Romanian news outlet Digi24, the next foreign minister could be Luminița Odobescu, who served as Romania’s permanent representative to the European Union from 2015 to 2021, directing Bucharest’s first presidency of the the Council of the EU in Brussels.

Ciucă, the former prime minister, was nominated last November after his center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) struck an uneasy coalition agreement with former rivals in the center-left Social Democratic Party (PSD), and the ethnic Hungarian UDMR group.

As part of the agreement, Ciucă was due to switch places with a PSD nominee in 2023 under an agreed rotation system. He was supposed to resign in late May, but postponed the move as the country was engulfed in a major teachers’ strike.

Ciucă eventually resigned Monday, together with his Cabinet, after striking a deal with teachers’ unions to increase their salaries.