By Luiza Ilie
BUCHAREST, June 22 (Reuters) – Romania’s Prime Minister-designate Adrian Vestea will seek parliament’s approval for his proposed cabinet late on Monday and will need the support of the opposition far right, a situation that could threaten Bucharest’s support for Ukraine.
Vestea, who is from the centre-right Liberal Party, announced his cabinet line-up and governing programme late on Sunday. Parliament scheduled the vote for Monday evening after marathon hearings involving the proposed ministers.
His government has the full support of the leftist Social Democrats, parliament’s largest party, who in early May quit a pro-European broad coalition government led by Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
But with the Liberals and the other two smaller parties in the previous coalition refusing to support Vestea’s proposed new cabinet, he is now at least partly reliant on opposition far-right lawmakers and defectors to secure enough votes in parliament.
Romania’s centrist president, Nicusor Dan, nominated Vestea without consulting the Liberal Party, which voted on Sunday to exclude Vestea from their ranks, as well as any party member who backs or joins his new government.
FAR-RIGHT AUR PARTY WANTS SNAP ELECTION
While smaller far-right groups have said they will back Vestea, the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), parliament’s second-largest party, which leads opinion surveys, has said it will not.
“Nicusor Dan and PSD have placed themselves in the difficult situation of proposing a government that cannot pass through parliament,” AUR vice president and senator Petrisor Peiu said on Facebook on Monday, adding that the best solution for Romania was an early election.
“Why would AUR self-destruct to save PSD?”
Vestea needs 233 votes for his cabinet to win parliamentary backing, and sources said he appeared likely to fall short of that target by 30 to 40 votes.
AUR, which has 38% to 41% in opinion surveys, opposes aid for Kyiv. It also voted against a law to shoot down Russian drones that breach national airspace near the border with Ukraine, and has been a vocal critic of the European Union, including its SAFE rearmament initiative.
Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University, said that should Vestea’s government be approved, “we will see a conservative retrenchment of government policies.”
Lawmakers who attach conditions to their support in the confidence vote will have a means of exerting control over the new government, “so we can expect various projects that are slightly sovereigntist or ultranationalist”, Miscoiu said.
The extended political crisis endangers Romania’s efforts to access billions of EU funds and keep its investment grade sovereign rating. Romania’s next parliamentary election is not scheduled until 2028. It has never held an early election.
(Reporting by Luiza IlieEditing by Gareth Jones)
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