Romanian PM Nicolae Ciuca resigns
Romania's prime minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Monday that he resigned, opening the way for planned government rotation which was supposed to take place on May 25 but was delayed by a national teachers' strike.
An interim government will be set up immediately after the letter of resignation reaches president Klaus Iohannis, Ciuca said during a press briefing. A new cabinet led by the head of Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, is expected to take office by the week's end, according to Ciuca, who is leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL).
"We aim to have the new government sworn in by Thursday," Ciuca said.
The rotation of power was one of the conditions on which the three parties within the governing coalition - the Liberals, the Social Democrats, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania - agreed upon when they formed the cabinet in 2021.
The rotation was delayed by a national strike of workers in the education sector which began on May 22 and ended on Monday, after the government raised the teachers' wages.
Ciuca, 56, is a retired Romanian Land Forces general. He served as a Chief of the Romanian General Staff between 2015-2019. His term as prime minister started in November 2021. Previously, he held the position of interim prime minister for three weeks in December 2020.
