Romania’s pro-European coalition collapses after prime minister fails no-confidence vote

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s pro-European coalition collapsed Tuesday after lawmakers voted in favor of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, triggering a fresh period of turmoil in the European Union country less than a year after the coalition was sworn in.

The joint effort was launched last week when the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR, submitted the motion to Parliament.

After a parliamentary debate, 281 lawmakers voted in favor of the motion and four against. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s center-right National Liberal Party, or PNL, and coalition partners Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party did not cast votes.

Bolojan called the motion “cynical and artificial” and said before the vote that it “seems to be written by people who were not in government every day and did not participate in all the decisions.”

“It is cynical, because it does not take into account the context in which we find ourselves,” he said. “I assumed the position of prime minister, being aware that it comes with enormous pressure and that I would not receive applause from the citizens. But I chose to do what was urgent and necessary for our country.”

Romania has faced a long period of instability after a presidential election was annulled in December 2024, and the country is grappling with one of the highest budget deficits in the EU, rampant inflation and a technical recession.

In June, when the coalition was voted in, it pledged to make reducing the budget deficit a top priority. The PSD often found itself at loggerheads with Bolojan over some of the austerity measures, which included tax hikes, public sector wage and pension freezes, and cutting public spending and public administration jobs.

PSD said Bolojan had “failed to implement any genuine reform” in his 10 months leading the government, and said Romania needs a leader who is “capable of collaboration.”

Bolojan said that he took tough but necessary fiscal measures that effectively “regained the trust of the markets in the Romanian government.”

The PSD would be needed to form a pro-European parliamentary majority. The party has previously ruled out entering a government with AUR. George Simion, the AUR leader, said Tuesday that voters had “supported and wanted water, food, energy,” but had “received taxes, war and poverty.”

“We assume the future of this country, a future government and restore the hope of the Romanians,” he said. “Romania must go back to the vote of the Romanians.”

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, said the crisis will likely lead to a stalemate, since “no one has a majority, or a coalition, and it will take the president ... weeks to find such a majority and name a new prime minister, prolonging the indecision.”

“At this moment, there are two tentative options for a new Cabinet, both difficult to achieve; either a reshuffled coalition, without Bolojan, in the same formation ... or a minority Cabinet, rather led by PSD and satellites from populist parties, like AUR, or other small groups,” he said. “A PSD-AUR official Cabinet is not a possibility today because the president will not endorse it.”

The prime ministerial position was set to be rotated in 2027 from Bolojan to a PSD premier as part of a power-sharing agreement. A general election is scheduled for 2028.

McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan addresses a parliament session ahead of a no confidence vote in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan addresses a parliament session ahead of a no confidence vote in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan reacts during a parliament session ahead of a no confidence vote in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romanian lawmakers stand during the anthem ahead of a no confidence vote against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's government in Romania's parliament in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan arrives at a parliament session ahead of a no confidence vote in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — The nearly 150 people aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Cape Verde have been mostly confined to their cabins, according to footage obtained by The Associated Press, after three passengers died and at least four others were left ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic, has been waiting for help after authorities on the island of Cape Verde, off the West African coast, refused to allow passengers to disembark due to public health concerns.

Footage showed the ship's decks mostly deserted and only a few people with medical masks moving about. Common halls were empty as passengers were isolated in their cabins. At least five people with full protective gear, white overalls, boots, and face masks, were seen disembarking from the ship into a small vessel.

The World Health Organization said Monday passengers were asked to stay in their cabins and “limit their risk while disinfection and other measures are being taken.”

Authorities in Cape Verde sent teams of doctors, surgeons, nurses and laboratory specialists to provide the vessel with medical support.

Officials in Cape Verde’s capital of Praia, a city of less than 200,000 people, said they have stepped up safety protocols, particularly near the port, as a precautionary measure against the rodent-borne illness that WHO says may be transmitted between people, though that is rare.

It remains unclear when the sick people on board would be evacuated. The WHO said late Monday they would soon be evacuated to the Netherlands for medical care.

The ship’s Netherlands-based operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said it would consider moving the vessel to one of the Spanish islands, Tenerife or the port of Las Palmas, if it can’t evacuate passengers to Cape Verde.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the plan for now is for the ship “to continue on to the Canary Islands.”

“We’re working with Spanish authorities, who will welcome the ship,” Kerkhove said.

She also stressed there are no other people with symptoms on board and that “once the two sick individuals on board are medically evacuated, then the ship can move.” Earlier, authorities in Cape Verde said three individuals on the ship reported mild symptoms.

However, the Spanish health ministry said in a statement Tuesday it was “conducting close monitoring, together with the World Health Organization and other involved countries, of the situation on the ship ... (and) the most appropriate port of call will be decided. Until then, the Ministry of Health will not adopt any decision, as we have informed the World Health Organization.”

Meanwhile, Oceanwide Expeditions said in a statement late Monday the atmosphere on board “remains calm, with passengers generally composed” and that the response plan implemented on board was at the highest level, 3, and includes isolation measures, hygiene protocols, and medical monitoring.

The ship left Ushuaia in southern Argentina on April 1, according to Argentine provincial authorities.

Although health officials in Ushuaia have said they confirmed no passengers had hantavirus symptoms when the ship departed, symptoms can appear up to eight weeks after exposure, Juan Facundo Petrina, director of epidemiology for Tierra del Fuego province, told the AP in an interview from Ushuaia.

The WHO said Monday night that while no new people on the ship had shown symptoms of the virus as of then, the situation is being “carefully monitored” for further developments.

“The outbreak is being managed through coordinated international response, and includes in-depth investigations, case isolation and care, medical evacuation and laboratory investigations,” the WHO has also said.

Cape Verde’s National Director of Health Angela Gomes told the state-run Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana radio that authorities are focused on guaranteeing “the maximum level of safety” for the local population.

"And for this reason, all assistance is being provided with personal protective equipment, with maximum protection, both to our medical team, but also to the entire team that assists the medical team in transporting it to the vessel,” said Gomes.

The MV Hondius cruise ship is anchored at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Arilson Almeida)

Research scientist Robert Nofchissey prepares samples of inactivated material as part of hantavirus research at the Center for Global Health at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato via AP)

A view of the inside of the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people as it remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato via AP)

Health workers get off the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, a cruise ship carrying nearly 150 people as it remains off Cape Verde on Monday, May 4, 2026 after three passengers died and several others fell seriously ill in a suspected hantavirus outbreak. (Qasem Elhato via AP)