Editorials

The Irish Times view on the fall of Romania’s government: fresh uncertainty for the EU

Centre-left joined with populist right to topple prime minister

Romanian parliament members cast their votes using black and white plastic balls during a plenary session of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, 05 May 2026. The motion against the Bolojan Cabinet passed with 281 votes in favor, 4 against and 3 annulled, resulting in the government being dismissed by a motion of censure. Following the vote, the government will remain interim until a new cabinet is formed.
Romanian parliament members cast their votes using black and white plastic balls during a plenary session of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, 05 May 2026. The motion against the Bolojan Cabinet passed with 281 votes in favor, 4 against and 3 annulled, resulting in the government being dismissed by a motion of censure. Following the vote, the government will remain interim until a new cabinet is formed.
Thu May 07 2026 - 20:00

The collapse on Tuesday of Romania’s centrist government at the instigation of ultra-nationalist Eurosceptic George Simion has injected a fresh degree of uncertainty and volatility into the politics of not juat thw the country but the EU as a whole. It comes only weeks after the defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orban seemed to signal that the populist far-right might be on the wane.

The fall of Romania’s centre-right prime minister, Ilie Bolojan, was facilitated by the centre-left Social Democratic Party (PSD), which holds the most seats in parliament. It backed a no-confidence motion against Bolojan’s coalition government last month in opposition to his attempts to balance the parlous budget with a range of austerity spending cuts. Since coming to office less than a year ago, Bolojan has tried to rein in the deficit, which stood at 7.65 per cent of GDP in 2025, well above the EU’s three per cent limit.

But in aligning in the confidence vote with Simion’s Trump-supporting Alliance for the Union of Romanians, the PSD has now crossed a previous red line, the “cordon sanitaire” which the EU’s democratic parties have largely maintained as a barrier to any collaboration with the far right. As a result the party has been widely condemned, not least by fellow socialists in the European Parliament.

Brussels will also view Simion’s success with alarm. His party strongly opposes aid to Ukraine and EU migration policy. It is still in a minority in parliament, but is topping opinion polls. The PSD is adamant that it will not supply the votes he needs to form a new government. It is willing to rejoin the coalition government under a new leader but is also being told by Bolojan’s party that it will not be accepted back.

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Moderate centrist president, Nicusor Dan, will now hold consultations with party leaders to broker an agreement for a new coalition government. With Bolojan and his National Liberal Party only able now to muster a minority, Dan may be forced to cobble together an intrinsically unstable technocratic government.