The PSD–AUR–UDMR ‘coalition’ divided up four key positions in two days

The PSD and the AUR do not officially form a coalition, and naturally neither does the UDMR, yet in practice they divided up four key positions between them in just two days: the two parties had already jointly elected the heads of the public television and radio broadcasters before, and now they have named the interim president of the Court of Accounts, while on Monday they split the secretary-general posts of the Chamber of Deputies between themselves. Cooperation between the PSD and the AUR began with the motion of no confidence that brought down the Bolojan government, and ever since the Niculescu government took office, it has been working ‘perfectly’: the PSD needed other parties to install the government, but relies on the AUR for parliament's day-to-day decisions, with the UDMR occasionally lending a hand as well.

The management of the Court of Accounts stirred up the biggest storm. On Tuesday, the joint plenary session elected Sorin Lazăr, a former PSD member of parliament from Buzău County, as the institution's interim president, with 248 votes in favor, 54 against and 48 abstentions. According to Ziare.com, Lazăr was vice-president of the National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP) between 2013 and 2016, and has been an advisor at the Court of Accounts since 2020; Spotmedia described him as a man of former PSD chairman Marcel Ciolacu, while according to Digi24, the UDMR, alongside the PSD and AUR, also voted for him. The presidency has been vacant since July 2025, when Mihai Busuioc moved to the Constitutional Court; since then, former tax authority head Mirela Călugăreanu had been running the institution on an interim basis, but her mandate has now expired. According to Digi24, the full nine-year presidential term is intended for PSD deputy prime minister Marian Neacșu, once he leaves the government. Thus the institution tasked with overseeing the use of public funds will be headed by a former MP of the ruling party, and is then expected to be led by a member of the government — isn't that just perfect? And then, no doubt, no one will scrutinize the UDMR's finances again, either.

That same Tuesday, the leadership of the public media was also decided. Parliament's cultural committees, followed by the joint plenary session, elected journalist Sorina Matei, nominated by the AUR, to a four-year term as head of Romanian Television (TVR), with votes from the PSD and AUR. The PSD's candidate, Răzvan Dincă, who had already led the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation (SRR) between 2021 and 2025, was placed at its helm. Both had been holding the posts on an interim basis since September: on September 8, the standing committees of the two chambers appointed them for sixty days, replacing Adriana Săftoiu and Robert Schwartz. Peiu had already openly admitted at the time that the two parties had colluded, telling Spotmedia that he knew in advance that the AUR's television candidate would pass with PSD votes, in exchange for the AUR also voting for the PSD's radio candidate. Asked whether there was an agreement between the two parties, he answered: “On this matter, yes, of course.” As we already reported during the September round of interim appointments, it would not have passed without the UDMR voting for the AUR's candidate to lead the Chamber of Deputies, in exchange for protecting its own quaestor position. Thus yesterday's vote turned what was then a temporary appointment into a permanent one, placing a pro-Russian disinformation-spreader at the head of the public media in the person of Sorina Matei — nice work, guys...

Ugar