However, if the proposed cabinet and policy program is rejected, President Nicușor Dan will gain the constitutional power to order new elections — the first since 2024, when the AUR made major gains and became the second-largest party in parliament. Mureșan acknowledged that the far-right faction is now polling at around 35 percent, compared to just 21 percent for his own center-right PNL.
“Early elections are not my preferred option,” said Mureșan. “I believe that we should try to form a pro-European government now. But should this not be possible, I think they should not be ruled out.”
The request from Dan, who last year beat the AUR’s controversial candidate George Simion in the race for the presidency, comes at an awkward time for Mureșan. Currently serving as a member of the European Parliament, he is one of the chief negotiators on the EU’s €2 trillion long-term budget, which the bloc’s leaders want to see finalized by the end of the year.
According to him, though, the far right taking control of Romania would make that job far harder because “any anti-European government around the table would want Europe to be weaker. They know that the budget is an important tool to keep Europe strong, and they would basically vote against an ambitious and realistic [budget].”
On top of that, “we would have a government which would be very friendly to Russia, and all of this would be bad for the people of Romania, for the European Union.”
Tim Ross and Max Griera contributed reporting.