Nicolae Ionel Ciucă (; born 22 September 1967) is a Romanian politician and retired general of the

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 ...

. Ideologically a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, he served as

Prime Minister of Romania The prime minister of Romania (), officially the prime minister of the Government of Romania (), is the head of the Government of Romania, Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled ''President of the Council of Ministers'' (), when ...

between 25 November 2021 and 12 June 2023 after receiving widespread parliamentary support on behalf of his own party, the National Liberal Party (PNL) along with the

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) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ). Since 10 April 2022, he has also been serving as the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL). On 12 June 2023, he resigned as prime minister, as part of a deal with his coalition partner, the PSD, to switch places with Marcel Ciolacu, and was temporarily replaced by

Cătălin Predoiu Cătălin Marian Predoiu (; born 27 August 1968) is a Romanian politician and lawyer who has been serving as the interim prime minister of Romania since 6 May 2025 following the resignation of Marcel Ciolacu, having previously served in this cap ...

. Ciucă has participated in the wars in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. He was the

Chief of the Romanian General Staff The Chief of General Staff () is the highest professional military authority in the Romanian Armed Forces. He is appointed by the President of Romania, at the Ministry of National Defense (Romania), National Defense Minister's proposal (with the ...

from 2015 to 2019, and from 2019 to 2021 was the

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

. He briefly led as caretaker the Romanian government between 7 and 23 December 2020, in the aftermath of former prime minister Ludovic Orban's resignation. On 21 October 2021, he was appointed by 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, ...

to form a new government following the dissolution of the Cîțu Cabinet and the rejection of

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 ...

as prime minister but subsequently gave up his mandate. Iohannis nominated him again on 22 November 2021.

Early life and education

Nicolae Ciucă was born in

Plenița Plenița is a Commune in Romania, commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania with a population of 4,156 people as of 2021. It is composed of two villages, Castrele Traiane and Plenița. The locality was a town until 1950. It is located in the wester ...

, a commune in

Dolj County Dolj County (; originally meant ''Dol(no)-Jiu River, Jiu'', "lower Jiu", as opposed to ''Gorj'' (''upper Jiu'')) is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Oltenia, with the capital city at Craiova. Demographics In 2011, ...

, on 7 February 1967. He graduated from the Tudor Vladimirescu Military Lyceum in

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

in 1985 and from the Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces Academy in

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

in 1988.

Military career

During his military career, he participated in missions in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, and

. From 2001 to 2004, he was commander of the 26th Infantry Battalion (also known as the Red Scorpions), with which he participated in

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used by the U.S. government for both the first stage (2001–2014) of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response ...

in Afghanistan and Operation Ancient Babylon in Iraq. He was promoted to the rank of General on 25 October 2010. In 2015, he replaced as

. His 4-year term under this office was extended for another year by the

Romanian President The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

in 2018. This caused a conflict between Iohannis, the Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and the then Minister of Defense, , who intended to change office.

Political career

On 28 October 2024, Ciucă admitted that he joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

in 1986, but claimed that every military officer had to do that and that he wasn't a communist. The National Liberal Party (PNL) proposed Ciucă as Minister of Defense of the First Orban Cabinet. He was transferred as a reserve on 28 October 2019, being succeeded as Chief of the Romanian General Staff by Daniel Petrescu. He became the Minister of Defense of Romania on 4 November 2019. In October 2020, he joined the National Liberal Party (PNL) to run as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for the

Senate of Romania 2012–2016 2008–2012 In December 2008, the Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) and the Alliance PSD+PC, political alliance established between the Social Democratic Party of Romania, Social Democratic Party ...

in that year's legislative elections and was subsequently elected as well. On 7 December 2020, following the resignation of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, he was named acting prime minister by Iohannis. He led as caretaker the government until a new coalition government was formed under Florin Cîțu on 23 December as a consequence of the result of the 2020 Romanian legislative election. However, after the Cîțu Cabinet was dissolved 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 ...

on 5 October 2021, Iohannis nominated Ciucă as Prime Minister-designate on 21 October 2021. While the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) quickly agreed to renew a minority government with the PNL, the

(PSD) offered to support him temporarily during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in exchange for agreeing to 10 measures. He presented his government on 29 October. Having failed to win the support of the PSD or the Save Romania Union (USR), he gave up forming a government on 1 November. He was nominated again as Prime Minister-designate on 22 November 2021 and was confirmed by the parliament on 25 November after receiving 318 votes in favor. He was sworn in the office hours later. After Florin Cîțu resigned as president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) on 2 April 2022, followed by an 8-day ad interim leadership of Gheorghe Flutur, Ciucă was elected as the new party leader. He is the third consecutive politician since 2019 to serve as both prime minister and president of the PNL at one point, the first two being Orban and Cîțu. P060391-426426

On 26 August 2022, Ciucă signed the first financing contracts of the so-called Anghel Saligny investment program, a foundation whose purpose is to develop settlements for Romanian civilians, formally created as a result of the 2021 Romanian political crisis. Since the investment of the Ciucă-led CNR cabinet, Romania has 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 ...

. In March 2023, Ciucă introduced an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

assistant, an "honorary advisor" known as ION, which aims to scan social networks to inform the government of the Romanian people's wishes and opinions. Following the introduction, Nicu Sebe, the coordinator of the research team behind ION, revealed that the event was staged with the AI being unable to generate responses; instead, there was a human operator responsible for selecting pre-prepared responses to anticipated questions. Besides this, it was revealed that out of the 500,000 messages that ION got, only the positive ones were published, with the rest being filtered out. On 12 June 2023, according to the protocol of the CNR, Ciucă resigned. He was replaced as prime minister by Marcel Ciolacu. He became the

President of the Senate of Romania The president of the Senate of Romania is the senator elected to preside over the Senate meetings. The president of the Senate is also the president of the Standing Bureau of the Senate of Romania, Standing Bureau of the Senate, and the first pe ...

on 13 June 2023. 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.

Awards

Ciucă is the recipient of the

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

of the French Republic, Commander rank, and of the National Order of Merit of Romania, Commander rank. In 2019, he was awarded the

Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the Order of Michael the Brave. It is the oldest Order of Romania. It is awarded by the Preside ...

, Officer rank. In 2020, he was awarded the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States military, military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievemen ...

by U.S. Ambassador Adrian Zuckerman.

Controversies

Plagiarism

Nicolae Ciucă has been accused of plagiarizing his PhD thesis by the independent news organization ''PressOne''. Following a year and a half-long investigation, the organization was able to transcribe and digitalize his thesis, "''The dimension of the Romanian army's engagement in multinational joint operations",'' finding that multiple pages of his work were copied, word for word, from other works without the texts correctly attributed to the original authors and lacking the requisite quotation marks, as required by academic norms. During the investigation, journalist Emilia Șercan discovered that at least 42 out of the 138 pages in the doctorate thesis were plagiarized and that 94.2% of the plagiarized content in Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă's thesis originates from non-digitized works, which could not be detected using anti-plagirizing software. Nicolae Ciucă denied the accusations, stating they "cannot be scientifically proven."

Personal life

Ciucă is married and has a child.

Political views

Ciucă opposes

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

as well as

civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

References

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciuca, Nicolae 1967 births 21st-century Romanian politicians Living people Chiefs of the General Staff of Romania Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite Conservatism in Romania Officers of the Order of the Star of Romania People from Dolj County People of the Iraq War Prime ministers of Romania Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the National Order of Merit (Romania) Romanian anti-same-sex-marriage activists Romanian Communist Party politicians Romanian Land Forces generals Ministers of defence of Romania Chairpersons of the National Liberal Party (Romania) National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Presidents of the Senate of Romania Candidates for President of Romania