And the first casualty in the new PNL-PSD-UDMR cabinet is known. His name: Florin Roman, Minister of Innovation and Digitalisation. Roman resigned on Wednesday, December 15, following an investigation by journalists who reported plagiarism and irregularities on his curriculum vitae, AP reports. 

Former prime minister and PNL leader Ludovic Orban announced the establishment of a new party, together with 15 other parliamentarians who left the liberal PNL, reported Spotmedia. For the moment, the party is named “Forța Dreptei” [the Right Force]. Orban: “We have decided to lay the foundations for a new center-right political construction”.

Another “new” political party did not make it: the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled authorities were right in refusing to register a new communist party, reported Balkan Insight. The Bucharest County Court had rejected the application in May 2014, arguing the programme and statutes of the “Romanian Communist Party” contained provisions contradicting the law on political parties and undermined democratic values. Its decision was upheld by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, after which the plaintiffs appealed to the European Court.