The Ciucă Cabinet () was the 132nd

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

led by former

Romanian Land Forces The Romanian Land Forces () is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Force ...

army general Army general or General of the army is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System. Army general is normally the highest rank used in peacetime. In countries that adopt the general officer fou ...

Nicolae Ciucă Nicolae Ionel Ciucă (; born 22 September 1967) is a Romanian politician and retired general of the Romanian Land Forces. Ideologically a conservative, he served as Prime Minister of Romania between 25 November 2021 and 12 June 2023 after receiv ...

(PNL; also current PNL president) from 25 November 2021 to 12 June 2023. The

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

forming the government, consisting of

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), and Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ), is also referred to as the '' National Coalition for Romania'' (, CNR). The

Social Liberal Humanist Party The Social Liberal Humanist Party (, PUSL), formerly Humanist Power Party (Social-Liberal) (, PPU-SL) is a centrist political party in Romania. It was founded in 2015 by members of the Conservative Party (PC) who did not want to merge with the ...

also received lower-level positions in the government. Since the cabinet's investment, Romania experienced a shift towards

authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...

and

illiberalism Historically, the adjective illiberal has been mostly applied to personal attitudes, behaviors and practices “unworthy of a free man”, such as lack of generosity, lack of sophisticated culture, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, meanness. Lord Ches ...

. Under Ciucă's premiership, Romania experienced

democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding or autocratization is a process of regime change toward autocracy in which the exercise of political power becomes more arbitrary and repressive. The process typically restricts the space for public contest and politi ...

, with

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

ranking it last in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in the world terms of democracy, even behind Viktor Orbán's Hungary. During Ciucă's premiership, the freedom of the press in Romania declined, according to

World Press Freedom Index The World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002 based upon the non-governmental organization's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in ...

(from 75.09 in 2021 to 69.04 in 2023).

Background and formation

On 1 September 2021, the PNL, then-prime minister

Florin Cîțu Florin Vasile Cîțu (; born 1 April 1972) is a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between December 2020 and November 2021 (acting/ad interim between October and November 2021). Sometimes labeled as Romania's first liber ...

and still incumbent president

Klaus Iohannis Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the fifth president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering Politics of Romania, national politics, ...

triggered the 2021 Romanian political crisis by the sacking of former justice minister Stelian Ion, preceded by a scandal between the PNL and their former coalition partners, the progressive-liberal

USR PLUS USR PLUS was a Romanian progressive, liberal, and centrist political alliance active between 2019 and 2021. Established on 2 February 2019 solely as an electoral alliance between the political parties Save Romania Union (USR) and the Freedom, ...

(from which Ion stemmed), on the so-called Anghel Saligny investment program (or "PNDL 3", as it is also known). The remaining USR ministers eventually resigned on their own, and the Cîțu Cabinet, which preceded the Ciucă Cabinet, was dismissed on 5 October through a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

, with a record number of votes on behalf of USR, PSD, and AUR. The prime minister candidate, who is designated by the president, has to request the investiture vote/vote of confidence from the legislature within 10 days from being appointed. On 11 October, President Iohannis designated

Dacian Cioloș Dacian Julien Cioloș (; born 27 July 1969) is a Romanian Agronomy, agronomist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from November 2015 to January 2017. He previously served as Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development (Romania), A ...

of the USR to form the next government, but his government was subsequently rejected by the parliament.

of PNL was designated for the same position on 20 October, but eventually submitted his term. At that time, he was ordered by the PNL to convene negotiations only for a PNL-UDMR minority government, which is a form of government that was not accepted by a party other than PNL and UDMR. The national-liberals resorted to negotiations with the largest party in the parliament, the

(PSD) in the prospect of forming a majority government with full powers, but they quickly reached a deadlock. The PSD, who were the main opposition party against the cabinets formed around the PNL up to this point, wanted the office of Prime Minister, but the PNL refused to cede the office and strongly desired that the office be occupied by a PNL member, which happened with the re-designation of

by President Iohannis on 22 November, one day after the negotiations ended. The cabinet hearings took place on 24 November. The Ciucă Cabinet was sworn in on 25 November.

Technological initiatives

The cabinet has shown support for some technological projects such as: nuclear energy by small modular nuclear reactors through a partnership with the US firm NuScale Power, electric vehicle development by a group of investors from Cluj and green energy projects. The cabinet also supports the Anghel Saligny investment program.

Composition

The Ciucă Cabinet was a grand

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

consisting of the

(PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ). Some positions within the government are set to rotate between the PSD and the PNL, more specifically the prime minister, the secretary-general of the government, and the ministries of interior, justice, finance, and defense. The next shuffle was originally planned to take place by 1 June 2023, though this was delayed on 26 May following a

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

in the Romanian education system that began a few days earlier.

Party breakdown

Party breakdown of cabinet members on the date of dissolution:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciuca Cabinet Cabinets of Romania 2021 establishments in Romania Cabinets established in 2021 2021 in Romania Rotation governments Grand coalition governments 2022 in Romania 2023 in Romania Cabinets disestablished in 2023