The designated Prime Minister of Romania, Siegfried Mureșan, failed to secure the confidence of Parliament on Wednesday, September 30. He received only 182 votes, while 233 were needed to form a government. President Nicușor Dan now has two options: to call for early elections or to appoint a new candidate for the position of Prime Minister from the Democratic Social Party (PSD), most likely Sorin Grindeanu. Mureșan, a member of the European Parliament from the PNL and vice-president of the EPP, was appointed following the fall of the Bolojan government after a joint vote by the PSD and AUR. The two parties together hold 218 seats out of 464 in Parliament. The PSD and AUR accused the government of its austerity measures, as Romania's deficit was the highest in the European Union in 2025 (7.9% of GDP). Without a government, Bucharest risks seeing its sovereign rating move into the speculative ("junk") category. According to statements from party officials, AUR's objective is to remove Nicușor Dan. The procedure requires a majority vote in Parliament, followed by a referendum organized within 30 days. Călin Georgescu, placed yesterday, Tuesday, September 29, in provisional detention for 30 days in a fraud and organized criminal group case, had won the first round of the vote with 22.94% of the votes. Ignored by most opinion polls and never given more than 8% of the votes, his electoral campaign was mainly conducted on social networks, particularly TikTok. He was arrested in February 2025 following the organization of 47 searches at the homes of several of his close associates, as the prosecution accused him of secret funding from Moscow. The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emil Hurezeanu, denounced "a form of interference in the internal elections of another state." The AUR party declared today in Parliament that it would not vote for any government as long as Călin Georgescu was not released. Romania is indeed on the front line of the hybrid war that Moscow is waging in Europe: the F-18 aircraft of the Spanish air force, deployed since August on the Mihail Kogălniceanu base, carried out 15 emergency takeoffs during their first month of mission in Romania. On the other side, the United States exert pressure to influence government decisions. In March, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the American ambassador to Greece and former fiancée of Don Jr., the eldest son of the American president, reportedly mentioned during a private dinner the imminent collapse of the Romanian government, during an exchange with the Greek Minister of Energy, Stavros Papastavrou. In front of other Greek and American officials, she reportedly said: "We can do this in any country of our choice. We can do it here [in Greece]," suggesting that Washington had been able to play a role in the fall of the government a few weeks later, on May 5. The Bolojan government was poorly viewed in Washington due to its refusal to buy American liquefied natural gas (LNG). In July, the U.S. Department of State launched a call for proposals aimed at supporting politically aligned organizations in Europe. The program is intended to fund projects carried out by NGOs, think tanks, or universities, focused on freedom of expression, sovereignty, and migration, for grants up to 3 million dollars. Its launch is scheduled today, Wednesday, September 30.