Minister of Finance In 2019, the joint budget and finance committee of the
Parliament of Romania failed to endorse the nomination of Cîțu as finance minister, though their vote was not binding. On 26 February 2020, following the
vote of no confidence against the
Orban Cabinet that had taken place 5 February, President
Klaus Iohannis designated Cîțu
Prime Minister of Romania and asked him to form a new government. Just before the investiture vote took place, Cîțu stepped back in favor of his party leader Ludovic Orban. Due to the emerging
COVID-19 pandemic, the main opposition party, i.e. the
Social Democratic Party (PSD), agreed to another term of the
Orban cabinet until the
December 2020 legislative election. Consequently, Florin Cîțu took back his position as finance minister until the formation of his own cabinet in late December 2020.
Prime minister After 9 December 2020, Cîțu was the
National Liberal Party's prime minister proposal to succeed acting head of government
Nicolae Ciucă (also issued from the PNL), following the resignation of
Ludovic Orban on 7 December. Cîțu became prime minister on 23 December, forming a three-party coalition government. The composition of
his cabinet was criticised for having only one female minister and for the appointment of
Sorin Cîmpeanu, who in a previous ministerial position had proposed legislation "that protected those found to have plagiarised their academic theses". During the term of his cabinet, he served as acting Minister of Health (between 14 and 21 April 2021) as a result of the firing of preceding Minister
Vlad Voiculescu. On 8 July, he took back the position of Minister of Public Finance for a second time after preceding Minister
Alexandru Nazare was ousted, this time acting, until
Dan Vîlceanu was sworn in on 18 August. In September 2021, the coalition
was threatened by the withdrawal of
USR PLUS party members, following the sacking on no pertinent reported grounds of former Justice Minister,
Stelian Ion. The USR PLUS entered parliamentary opposition and put forth a motion of no confidence alongside
AUR, thus triggering a major governmental crisis in Romania, which was already hit hard by the fourth wave of the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic. His former coalition partners, USR PLUS, heavily criticized Cîțu for the adoption of PNDL3 and Anghel Saligny projects through emergency ordinances, two public procurement money-based projects which they deemed corrupt and thereby legitimizing theft from public money and EU funds. Subsequently, Cîțu's position as prime minister has been backed by a boycotting of the no confidence motion by both PNL and PSD up to the current day. In the meantime, his own political party has been swept from public trust (constantly registering lower points in the opinion polls conducted by various institutes for
the upcoming legislative elections) and has undergone increased internal turmoil with respect to the congress scheduled for 25 September. In addition, in late September 2021, DNA officially started the criminal investigation in Florin Cîțu's case on the grounds of abuse of office and incitement to abuse of office as prime minister. On 5 October 2021, Cîțu was ousted from his position as Prime Minister after a vote of no-confidence. Former coalition partners USR (previously USR PLUS) described the vote as stemming from "all the reforms that have been blocked in recent months, for the failure of
the vaccination campaign, for the use of money and public functions to buy votes at the PNL congress". After the successful vote of no-confidence, Cîțu continued to serve as
acting/ad interim prime minister until the
next cabinet, led by
Nicolae Ciucă, was sworn in a month later.
President of the National Liberal Party (PNL) On 25 September 2021, Cîțu became president of the
National Liberal Party (PNL), as a result of defeating previous party president
Ludovic Orban in a party congress held on the same day at
Romexpo in Bucharest before approximately 5,000 delegates. Cîțu resigned from this position on 2 April 2022, under pressure from his party colleagues.
President of the Senate On 23 November 2021, Cîțu became
president of the
Senate, after
Anca Dragu of the
Save Romania Union (USR) was dismissed earlier that day. In this capacity he visited Ukraine in April 2022, in the context of
the Russian invasion, after the invitation of the Chairman of the
Verkhovna Rada,
Ruslan Stefanchuk. Cîțu met with President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister
Denys Shmyhal and held a speech as part of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. After visiting Hostomel, Irpin and Bucha, which have been heavily damaged by the aggression, Cîțu strongly condemned the war crimes committed by the Russian army, and highlighted that Russia must pay Ukraine war reparations for the massive damage caused. He also said that Romania should officially propose to the European Commission the establishment of a special position, to coordinate with the Ukrainian side the reconstruction of this country. His visit in Ukraine led to the
2022 cyberattacks on Romania, when a pro-
Kremlin hacking group launched a series of
DDoS attacks against multiple Romanian websites, including governmental ones. Cîțu resigned from this office on 29 June 2022. As with the PNL presidency, he was pressured to take this step by the PNL leadership (led by Prime Minister
Nicolae Ciucă) that succeeded him, who withdrew party support for Cîțu after he criticized the actions of the
government led by Ciucă. This was the last remaining political office held by Cîțu. ==Other activities==