The national currency continued to lose ground against the US dollar too, on May 4, trading at RON4.4376/USD, from RON4.3965/USD on April 30.
Until the onset of crisis, the leu had stagnated at 5.09 units per euro since the beginning of 2026. The leu dropped to 1-year low on April 29, surpassing the psychological threshold of 5.1004 units to the euro, after standing at RON5.0937 per euro on April 28.
The leu last touched an all-time low of RON5.12 versus the euro on May 5, 2025, the second day after the first round of Romania’s presidential election when then-prime minister Marcel Ciolacu announced his resignation.
The minority government of Romania’s pro-European Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan could fall in early May 2026 after his former coalition partner, the leftist Social Democrats, and the far-right opposition submitted a no-confidence motion on April 28. The coalition’s collapse raised the prospect of weeks or months of policy deadlock that could put pressure on Romania’s debt yields, credit ratings and access to European Union funds as talks are held on a new parliamentary majority.
Social Democrat ministers quit the government in the second half of April, but the reform-minded Bolojan refused to step down, saying the government had vital reforms to implement to tap more than EUR10 billion worth of pandemic recovery and resilience funds before the EU’s August deadline. Romania must also further lower the EU’s largest budget deficit – to 6.2% of economic output in 2026 from over 9% in 2024 – or risk losing its investment grade rating. Bolojan has said several times that he refuses to resign and will continue to lead the government, pointing out that those against him “must come up with a solution and take responsibility for what will happen in the coming period.”
While the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the parliament’s biggest party, without which a pro-EU majority cannot be attained, have repeatedly said they are willing to rejoin the same pro-European party cluster with a different prime minister, the other parties have said they will not collaborate with the PSD again. The PSD has teamed up with the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) for a no-confidence motion but the party’s leader has denied any plan to collaborate with AUR beyond the May 5 no-confidence vote.
If Bolojan survives the non-confidence vote, he will still need to seek a new confidence vote within 45 days, when the mandate of the interim replacements for the PSD ministers who have quit expires. If the government collapses, centrist President Nicusor Dan, who nominates the prime minister, is widely expected to attempt to rebuild the four-party pro-EU coalition with a different Liberal or a technocrat as prime minister.