BUCHAREST, Romania — Nearly six months of political deadlock ended in Romania on Tuesday, as parliament confirmed independent Luca Niculescu as prime minister and gave his cabinet full powers.
He cleared the bar easily. The count in the joint sitting was 280 votes for his cabinet, against a threshold of 233. The official result read out in the chamber put turnout at 355 of parliament’s 464 members, with 338 valid votes cast and 58 against.
President Nicusor Dan, a centrist, nominated Niculescu, 55, a diplomat and former journalist who has been serving as deputy foreign minister. It was Dan’s fourth try at installing a government since a pro-European broad coalition cabinet collapsed in early May.
Niculescu told lawmakers before the vote that he was not asking for a blank check.
“I am asking you to understand Romania needs a government with full powers after so many months of crisis.”
His government is a minority cabinet of leftists and technocrats. The Social Democrats, the largest party in parliament, take 11 of the 17 ministries, and independents hold posts that include finance and foreign affairs, according to Reuters.
The months without a full-powers government pressed on Romania’s investment-grade credit rating and hurt investor confidence. The new prime minister has to cut one of the European Union’s largest budget deficits and at the same time prop up a contracting economy, scrap an extra turnover tax on companies and raise pensions that stayed frozen for two years because of fiscal limits.
Political analysts told Reuters the government could still be short-lived.
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