Romania remains without a government after another attempt: Veștea fails to win confidence vote as AUR walks out of the chamber

The Romanian parliament on Monday evening denied a confidence vote to the government of prime minister-designate Adrian Veștea. The cabinet received only 189 votes out of the required 233 — with 23 lawmakers voting against — after most members of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), led by George Simion, walked out of the chamber. For a country that has been without a full-fledged government since the fall of the Bolojan cabinet on May 5, this means one thing: the nearly seven-week deadlock continues, and President Nicușor Dan must once again search for a prime minister. HotNews.ro ↗ G4Media ↗

A quick recap of what's at stake. Romania has been without a full-fledged government since May 5, when the pro-European cabinet of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan fell — brought down by the unusual pairing of the left-wing PSD and the far-right AUR. President Dan has since been searching for a prime minister with a stable majority; Veștea, a liberal from Bolojan's own party, was his latest attempt so far. Al Jazeera ↗

The pro-European camp divided against itself

The biggest paradox of this crisis is not that the far right stands against the government. It is that the pro-European camp has split. Veștea is a liberal — yet his own National Liberal Party (PNL) rejected him. Its leader and former prime minister Bolojan described Veștea's acceptance of the nomination without the party's consent as an attempt at a split; the PNL leadership called on him to return his mandate and threatened to expel any lawmaker who voted for his government. Romania Insider ↗

With Veștea short of votes, he turned to the far right: on Monday evening he accepted an invitation to AUR's headquarters for talks with Simion, describing himself as "a man of dialogue." This provoked a sharp reaction from within his own ranks. PNL MEP Siegfried Mureșan declared that "Romania does not need a government that begins its mandate by negotiating with friends of Russia." The mayor of Timișoara, Dominic Fritz (USR), summed it up by saying Veștea would become prime minister "only if he kisses Simion's ring." Adevărul ↗ G4Media ↗

In the end, the meeting produced no votes. Simion delivered a short speech in the chamber about "betrayal" and called on AUR lawmakers to leave — closing off the government's only mathematically possible path. Digi24 ↗

The math that didn't add up

To form a government, Veștea needed 233 votes at a joint sitting of both chambers. His declared support consisted of a disparate coalition: the Social Democrats (PSD) as the strongest party, plus minority representatives and small nationalist or far-right factions and defectors. Both the reformist USR and the Hungarian minority party UDMR refused their support, as did the PNL. Without AUR's roughly ninety seats, Veștea had about 211 votes secured; even the last-minute addition of fifteen votes from minority representatives was not enough to reach the required 233. Newsweek România ↗ Ziare.com ↗ In the final vote, the government ultimately received 189 votes, with 23 against — after AUR's walkout, it did not even come close to the required threshold. G4Media ↗

It is a mirror image of what triggered the crisis in the first place. Bolojan's government fell on May 5 when that same pairing of PSD and AUR voted against it. Now the alliance of the left and the far right was forming again, only with the opposite sign — and once again it was AUR that decided the outcome.

What is at stake

Nearly seven weeks without a full-fledged government is not just political theater. Romania is grappling with one of its most severe budget crises since the fall of communism: a public finance deficit that reached 9.3 percent of GDP in 2024 — the highest in the European Union — and, according to estimates, remained high last year as well. Further prolonging the deadlock threatens the drawdown of billions of euros from the European Recovery Fund and, according to warnings, is pushing the country toward a credit rating downgrade. Global Banking & Finance ↗

The public is not watching indifferently — quite the opposite, with considerable dissatisfaction. According to a mid-June survey by the Avangarde institute, 81 percent of Romanians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, and 88 percent want a government formed quickly so the crisis does not drag on further. Romania Insider ↗ This frustration is politically flammable: it feeds the narrative, spread by the far right led by Călin Georgescu since the annulled 2024 election, that the Romanian system is dysfunctional. Georgescu, whose case over an alleged coup attempt has its next hearing on June 29, is meanwhile calling on parliament to remove President Dan. Romania Insider ↗

Read also: Romania in a double deadlock: without a government and without a verdict. Court postpones coup attempt case for a third time

Limits of this perspective

We are following this crisis from a distance and without a partisan lens — which requires naming the bias present on all sides. Most of our picture comes from Romanian media, which are themselves deeply divided: pro-European dailies read Veștea's negotiations with AUR as a humiliation, while nationalist outlets present it as a victory for "sovereigntists." The dispute within the PNL, moreover, is not purely a matter of principle — it also has a dimension of a power struggle over the liberals' leadership, and the mutual accusations between the two wings should be treated as political attacks, not verified facts. The far right's claim that the 2024 election was "stolen" remains its narrative, not a proven conclusion — just as the mutual accusations between the wings should be read as part of the political struggle, not as established facts.

Why we are following this from Slovakia

Romania is a close NATO and EU member state on the Black Sea flank, and its instability carries regional repercussions. As a Black Sea coastal state, it repeatedly deals with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, including drone debris falling on its own territory; Slovakia was among the countries that offered Bucharest anti-drone equipment this month. teraz.sk ↗ Bucharest is also an anchor for neighboring Moldova, which, with European support, is disconnecting from Russian energy supplies. Political chaos in Romania is therefore not just a Romanian problem — it weakens the EU's eastern flank at a sensitive moment.

What hotinfo is watching

• President Dan's next move: whom he will nominate after Veștea's failure — and whether the deadlock will move the country closer to early elections.
• June 29: Supreme Court hearing date in the case of the alleged coup attempt (Georgescu, Potra).
• The fate of billions of euros from the Recovery Fund, and the risk of a rating downgrade if a government is not formed in time.
• Georgescu's call to suspend the president — whether parliament takes it up.
• AUR's further steps, including announced no-confidence motions and continued efforts to suspend the president.