Romanian Prime Minister Muresan loses confidence vote

Romanian Prime Minister Siegfried Muresan has lost the vote of confidence in parliament. The third nomination of a prime minister by Romanian President Nicusor Dan failed due to a lack of a parliamentary majority. Muresan received 182 votes but would have needed 233. The vote was intended to end Romania's political crisis that has been going on for months.

Analysts had previously expressed concern that such an outcome could stall Romania's efforts to reduce its budget deficit, which is relatively the largest in the EU. The crisis recently weakened Romania's national currency and drove up the yields on Romanian bonds.

The vote leaves open the possibility that the right-wing extremist AUR (Alliance for the Unification of Romanians) will form a government majority with the PSD (Social Democratic Party) in the future. The AUR is critical of the European Union, NATO and Ukraine's support in the war against Russia. The Social Democrats announced earlier this week that they would no longer rule out forming a government with the AUR.

Almost five months ago, the pro-European coalition government collapsed due to the PSD.