Siegfried Muresan was the pick of the Liberals, the Save Romania Union and the UDMR ethnic Hungarian party
The three political parties on Friday advanced MEP Siegfried Mureșan as their joint proposal for the position of prime minister to President Nicușor Dan in a bid to end a seven-week political crisis.
The 44-year-old Mureșan is vice-president of the National Liberal Party and the European People’s Party (EPP). He has been an MEP in Brussels for 12 years.
He comes after the rival Social Democrats, the PSD, proposed their leader Sorin Grindeanu to head a minority government.
Nicusor Dan will nominate a prime minister who then needs to get parliament’s approval. Two former picks have failed, one before they reached parliament and the second didn’t get the votes needed.
The crisis began after the PSD united with hard-right AUR party to oust Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan in May.
Muresan studied at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, continued his studies in Berlin, and then worked for three years in the German Parliament.
He was an advisor to the president of the Committee on European Affairs. Before running for a seat in the European Parliament, he was an official of the EU legislature.
In the past, Mureșan was also proposed by former President Traian Basescu for the position of prime minister. He joined the Liberals in 2018.
According to a study by the research platform Eu Matrix, Siegfried Mureșan ranked 36th in 2024 in the top of the most influential MEPs in the current legislature. The European Parliament has 720 MEPs.
Mureșan was also Parliament’s chief negotiator and rapporteur for the 2024 European Union Budget.
