Romania’s Liberals Want Finance Minister to Head New Govt

The ruling centre-right National Liberal Party, PNL, went to the polls with its leader and then-prime minister, Ludovic Orban, as their choice to head the new government. 

But the PNL's unexpected defeat on Sunday at the hands of the opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, which won 29 per cent of the votes, 4 more per cent than the PNL, left Orban in a precarious position. 

He has excluded himself from reelection, resigning as prime minister on Monday, when Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca, was named interim Prime Minister until the formation of a new government.

Ciuca, 53, a retired general, was Chief of Staff of the Romanian Armed Forces between 2015 and October 2019 before becoming Minister of Defence in the then new PNL minority government.

He earlier led Romanian units in the war theatres of Afghanistan and Iraq, where he commanded the first Romanian battalion to enter a combat situation since World War II in the so-called Battle of Nasiriyah. 

In 2004 Ciuca led Romania's Red Scorpions to victory against Iraqi shiites who had attacked a coalition base. This gained the general the respect of the Americans, with whom he cooperated intensely as Defence Minister, when several contracts were signed to reinforce Romania's capacities to counter Russia's influence in the Black Sea.

U.S. Secretary for Defense Mark Esper greets Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca (R) prior to a meeting ahead to a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 12 February 2020. EPA-EFE/Virginia Mayo / POOL

Ciuca's name started topping the list of likely prime ministers of the new government. But, though elected an MP on the PNL slate, he is not considered a party man, which might be why the PNL is putting forward the...