BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian President Nicusor Dan nominated a diplomat and former journalist on Monday to be prime minister, his fourth attempt to end a monthslong political crisis after three previous nominees failed to form a government.
Dan nominated 55-year-old Luca Niculescu, a secretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a national coordinator for Romania’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development accession process since 2022.
The nomination comes less than a week after lawmakers rejected a new Cabinet proposed by Siegfried Muresan, Dan's third designated prime minister tasked with ending the prolonged deadlock.
At the presidential Cotroceni Palace in the capital Bucharest, Dan described Niculescu as someone with the best chance of securing a parliamentary majority and said it's “vital and urgent for Romania to have a government.”
“Mr. Niculescu is free to decide on the specific political-technocratic government formula following in-depth discussions with the parties,” he said. “What matters most is securing a parliamentary majority.”
Dan added that a government led by Niculescu would “maintain Romania’s pro-Western course and honor all financial targets and commitments the country has undertaken.”
After accepting his nomination, Niculescu said he is aware Romania “has long been going through a period of political uncertainty” against a backdrop of economic and international difficulties, and that he will hold consultations with political parties in the coming days and then present a governing team.
“My first task will be to build a parliamentary majority,” he said. “I cannot promise miracles, but I can promise a serious approach to the use of public funds, economic predictability, adherence to Romania’s commitments, the acceleration of investments and reforms, and a state that functions effectively for its citizens.”
“I will hold discussions with parliamentary parties to form this majority and agree upon a realistic governing program,” he added.
Niculescu is a former ambassador of Romania to France, Andorra and Monaco, and between 1992 and 2016, he worked as a journalist. He graduated from the Bucharest University of Journalism in 1995 and holds a master’s degree from the Strasbourg University Center for Journalism Education.
The political crisis has gripped Romania since May, when Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was ousted in a no-confidence motion jointly filed by the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which was part of the governing coalition, and the nationalist opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, or AUR.
After the new nomination, PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu said Dan's new nomination “continues to defy parliamentary arithmetic” and said his party would hold a meeting of the National Permanent Bureau to analyze the proposal.
“After four failed right-wing prime ministers, we are seeing a new designation that disregards the party that won the elections,” he said in a post on Facebook. “If the Prime Minister-designate continues to champion Bolojan’s austerity policies, I believe the only way to get Romania back on the right track is to hold early elections."
Dan made two nominations in June. The president can dissolve Parliament if it rejects two Cabinet proposals within 60 days of the first rejection. The next election is scheduled for 2028.
Last week’s failed vote on Muresan’s Cabinet proposal raised the chances of early elections at a time of regional security concerns, with the NATO member confronting a sharp increase in drone incursions linked to Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine.
“A stronger state is also a better-protected state; given the war on our border, we need firmness and vision to defend Romania,” Niculescu said.
When the previous coalition came to power in 2025, Bolojan was sworn in with the aim of ending one of Romania’s worst political crises in its post-Communist history and reducing a massive budget deficit.
McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan, right, walks with Luca Niculescu before nominating him as Prime Minister designate, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexandru Nechez)
Romanian Prime Minister designate Luca Niculescu, left, speaks to media after being nominated to form a government by Romanian President Nicusor Dan, right, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexandru Nechez)
Romanian Prime Minister designate Luca Niculescu, left, speaks to media after being nominated to form a government by Romanian President Nicusor Dan, right, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexandru Nechez)
ITHACA, New York (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest the university's response to allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house, and the school's main administration building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.
At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the school's student center, students, faculty members and others wore purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe" — the name by which the woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Other people watched from pathways, windows and a nearby hill.
“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?”
Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should not be inevitable.”
Speakers faulted fraternities, the university trustees and Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, saying he and his administration have prioritized protecting the university's reputation over students' safety.
“Kotlikoff, resign!” demonstrators chanted, among other slogans, as they marched to the damaged administration building to present a list of demands. They included changes to how the student code of conduct defines sexual consent, an overhaul of the student discipline system and expulsions or degree revocations for all students involved in the alleged 2024 assault of the woman known as Jane Doe, among other things.
The woman's account of being sexually assaulted by several fraternity brothers has made clear, on and beyond campus, that “for all the strong feelings about sexual assault, .... we do not do enough to prevent it, nor to support survivors after it happens," student Madeline Gage said.
The group began disbanding with chants including “ban the frats!”
The Ivy League school has been trying to quell a firestorm over its handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday, the university found signs of the anger on the very walls of its administrative headquarters.
Holes were knocked into one of the building's glass doors, and the walls beside them were marked with red-painted messages condemning patriarchy and the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assaults, news media photos showed. Later Monday, the graffiti was removed and the door was boarded up.
Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said in a statement that the university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the answer” to Cornellians' “frustration and strong emotions.” Campus police referred questions to his office, which declined to provide more detail on the incident.
Jane Doe alleges that she was sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity members in October 2024 after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs. She was a Cornell student at the time.
The woman recently sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others. Her lawsuit said that she became fully incapacitated as fraternity members assaulted her, and that one man sent others a message inviting them to participate.
“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators last year, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records show that some of the accused students, when interviewed by Cornell investigators, described the sexual activity as consensual.
Shortly before she went to Cornell police in November 2024, Jane Doe recorded a phone call with one of the men she says raped her. ABC News broadcast portions of that call Monday, containing only what it said was his voice, and recounted other parts of the conversation in writing.
“What y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him at one point, according to the network, which said she had provided the recording to the university.
The suit has drawn national attention to what Cornell, its police force and the local district attorney did after she told the campus police in November 2024 she “can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others. In a statement last week, the administration bristled about the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case.”
Students, however, have demanded more accountability and transparency, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Jane Doe was “failed by people and institutions" including the Cornell police and local District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.
Hochul appointed the state attorney general last week to take over a criminal investigation that Van Houten had reopened days earlier, and the governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter.
After the week's developments, Kotlikoff released an apologetic video Saturday, saying that Jane Doe's account “raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”
Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the university's actions and vowed more transparency and a commitment to "finding the answers our community deserves.”
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
Demonstrators attend a protest against Cornell University's handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the campus, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Student Athena Holloway speaks during a protest against Cornell University's handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the campus, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Attendees hold signs during a protest against Cornell University's handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the university Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
An attendee holds a sign in support of Jane Doe during a protest at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Demonstrators attend a protest against Cornell University's handling of the 2024 fraternity-house gang rape allegations at the campus, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A sign stands outside the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A sign is displayed on a door at Day Hall after damage and graffiti overnight was cleaned up at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A Cornell University police car is seen parked on campus at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
