Foreign policy at amateur hour: Romania’s credibility crisis under PM Ciolacu

A truck company owner with MAGA affiliations, introduced as Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s emissary to the United States, has cast doubt over Romania’s entire foreign policy direction. Dragoș Sprînceană claimed he told the U.S. Administration to “ignore Romania’s pro-Ukraine and pro-France messages because we have an interim president who will no longer matter.” Not since the infamous 2006 request by Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu to withdraw Romanian troops from Iraq has there been a more damaging episode for Romanian diplomacy.

Ciolacu’s half-hearted attempt to distance himself from Sprînceană falls far short. The Prime Minister must pay a political price for what looks like an unprecedented lapse in judgment — unless, of course, it wasn’t a blunder at all but a calculated move to undermine Ilie Bolojan (the interim president and a potential rival for the premiership).

With Sprînceană as his proxy, Ciolacu has brought Romania dangerously close to a foreign policy implosion. When did it become acceptable for a Prime Minister’s informal associate to attack the EU, France, or undermine national alliances?

Few understand how Romania’s head of government ended up asking a transportation businessman to do him a favor with the Trump Administration. Unconfirmed sources suggest a connection through Lucian Romașcanu and a Masonic lodge. The motivation seems personal: Ciolacu reportedly took Washington’s suspension of Romania’s Visa Waiver candidacy as a blow to his political standing.

And so began a series of political spasms. First, Ciolacu lashed out publicly at Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu and demanded his removal. But Interim President Ilie Bolojan ignored the request, humiliating Ciolacu: a Prime Minister who couldn’t even fire a minister. Within PSD and the broader political class, it was seen as yet another sign of his fragility.

What did Ciolacu accomplish? He weakened Romania’s Foreign Ministry at a time when global power dynamics are shifting.

It briefly seemed that Ciolacu had learned his lesson — that foreign policy is not his domain. The Romanian Constitution and rulings from the Constitutional Court (CCR) have long made it clear that this is the President’s turf. That precedent was firmly set during the Băsescu–Ponta rivalry.

But Ciolacu kept going, working to chip away at Bolojan’s authority.

He went so far as to announce that he had spoken to two individuals who would represent Romania’s interests with the Trump team. In doing so, the Prime Minister — who has no foreign policy mandate — opened unofficial, unregulated backchannels with Washington.

It was pure amateur hour. These individuals had no affiliation with the Romanian state, no accountability, and no diplomatic training.

And the way Ciolacu tapped Dragoș Sprînceană was telling: he reportedly called him at 5 a.m., asking him to “tell the truth about Romania.” What that truth was remains unclear, but we know what Sprînceană told Digi24: that the U.S. should “ignore Romania’s pro-Ukraine and pro-France messages” because “we have an interim president who doesn’t matter anymore.”

Besides throwing Romania’s foreign policy under the bus, this statement had political undertones — directly weakening Ilie Bolojan, who many see as a potential next Prime Minister.

Ciolacu waited until Monday afternoon to vaguely distance himself from Sprînceană’s Sunday remarks — only after informal concerns began trickling in from Romania’s international partners. His denial was tepid at best:

“The opinions expressed in public by various Romanian citizens who hold no official status are purely personal and do not reflect the state’s position. Romania’s official stances are always communicated through institutional channels, in coordination with the Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, our foreign policy priorities remain unchanged. There is no such thing as a ‘Ciolacu emissary.’ I have, however, spoken with many Romanians in the diaspora — entrepreneurs, doctors, IT experts — who are open to helping facilitate communication thanks to their international ties,” he posted on social media.

It was too little, too late — and unconvincing.

If Romania is to avoid further diplomatic embarrassment, Ciolacu must completely sever ties with Sprînceană and abandon this parallel diplomacy. The global diplomatic arena isn’t Buzău County Council, and foreign affairs can’t be run like backroom deals at PSD headquarters.

International trust takes years to build — and one minute of amateur hour to destroy.

That Ciolacu didn’t grasp this speaks volumes. Though an agile political operator on the home front, the PSD leader has a shallow grasp of international politics. The trickery that might work in Bucharest becomes a liability in Washington or Brussels. Which is why, the sooner he steps down, the better — not just for foreign policy, but for Romania’s broader stability, as Dan Tăpălagă wrote yesterday.

This isn’t the first time Ciolacu has leapt into foreign policy without knowing what he’s doing. Early in his mandate, during a visit to Berlin, he stunned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by announcing the deployment of German troops to Romania — a claim Scholz had to walk back almost immediately.

But then, what do you expect from a politician who barely passed high school, speaks no foreign languages, enrolled in a private university at 24, and finished his degree nine years later?

Foreign policy isn’t for amateur hour.