Romania’s PM-designate Nicolae Ciucă, the acting defense minister, gave up on his mandate to form a Government.

The Government of Ciucă was due to stand the Parliament’s vote tomorrow, November 3.

The Executive Bureau of the National Liberal Party (PNL) decided that the PM-designate should give up on his mandate as the party seeks to start negotiations with all “democratic forces” in Parliament to form a majority, PNL president Florin Cîțu announced in the evening of Monday, November 1. PNL and the Hungarians’ Alliance UDMR were hoping to get support for a minority Government.

PNL is expected to come up with a PM proposal at a meeting held today, November 2.

“The [party’s] Executive Political Bureau decided to withdraw the mandate; this is why I decided to give up on it. I am convinced that all the activities that will take place at the level of the parties should be based on dialogue and understanding of the country’s current situation. I appeal again to responsibility, stability, political maturity to find a format for a majority to support the Government. Negotiations at the level of Romania’s president will follow, and he will make the decision of a nomination,” Ciucă said, quoted by Digi24.

He also explained the “mathematical reality” of the support his Government would have gathered in Parliament led to the decision to withdraw. 

The Liberals are also due to discuss today the case of the 14 MPs who decided to leave the PNL parliamentary group, among them former party president Ludovic Orban. 

President Klaus Iohannis nominated Ciucă to form a Government on October 21, after PM-designate Dacian Cioloș failed to get the Parliament’s support. Iohannis had to nominate a new PM after the Government of Florin Cîțu fell after a no-confidence motion introduced by the Social Democrats (PSD) and supported by PNL and UDMR’s former coalition partners USR, and by AUR.

Romania is dealing with a sanitary crisis as the fourth wave of the pandemic hit the country hard in October and pushed it to the top of the Covid-19 death rate ranking. Local hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of serious cases. More than 414,000 Covid-19 cases were reported in Romania in October, representing about a quarter of the total number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. More than 10,700 people lost their lives due to the disease last month, according to official data.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)

simona@romania-insider.com