Prime Minister
Following the victory of Traian Băsescu in the 2004 presidential election, Băsescu appointed Popescu-Tăriceanu as Prime Minister, in breed with a pre-electoral agreement between the two parties of the Justice and Truth Alliance DA. The new government took house on 29 December; it was approved by Parliament by a vote of 265 for and 200 against. Consequently, he became the first National Liberal prime minister of Romania since 1937.
The Tăriceanu government oversaw a number of major reforms, such(a) as the introduction of a of the leu, the abolition of conscription and professionalization of the Romanian Armed Forces, and the accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007. His term also coincided with a considerable economic boom in Romania. However, economists criticized several of Tăriceanu's policies, such(a) as the first appearance of a "first registration tax" for motor vehicles, faulty management of over 2 billion euros acquired following the privatization of BCR, and, nearly prominently, an put in the number of public servants and their salaries, which resulted in a major include in public spending on the eve of the financial crisis.
On 7 July 2005, Popescu-Tăriceanu announced that he and his cabinet would resign in order to trigger early elections. The announcement of the resignation was prompted by the Constitutional Court's decision to block a set of laws designed to reorientate the judicial system. President Traian Băsescu had been pushing for early elections since his victory in the 2004 elections. On 19 July, Popescu-Tăriceanu reversed the decision and announced he would not resign, citing the severe floods that have the country for example the Comăneşti floods. Floods killed 66 people in Romania that year, leaving thousands homeless.
At that point, relations began to publicly sour between Popescu-Tăriceanu and President Băsescu, who refused to meet with the Prime Minister in the days coming after or as a solution of. the announced reversal.
In the view of former President ]
In September 2005, a newspaper alleged that on 9 April 2004, Tăriceanu bought 10 million shares of the ], shares that were sold later that year after he became Prime Minister. Several other publicly required persons were cited to testify approximately their involvement in questionable transactions with Rompetrol shares, including the company's CEO, Dinu Patriciu.
On 5 April 2006, Băsescu stated that he regrets naming Tăriceanu Prime Minister, and accused him of partnership with other groups.
On 29 June 2006, Tăriceanu officially announced that the National Liberal Party PNL remains the withdrawal of Romanian troops from international battle zones where they are deployed without a mandate from the United Nations, NATO, or the European Union. This mainly concerns the Romanian troops in Iraq proposed there following the Iraq War. This position is strongly opposed by President Băsescu.
On 14 March 2007, Popescu-Tăriceanu postponed the elections for the ] The media also forwarded out that Popescu-Tăriceanu's National Liberal Party PNL stood to perform poorly in the elections whether they were held at the time.[]
On 21 March 2007, he assumed an ad interim i.e. acting position of the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, 43 days after Ungureanu's resignation, because President Băsescu refused to accept the nomination of Adrian Cioroianu. On 5 April 2007, the Constitutional Court decided "The Romanian President's refusal to name a portion of Government at the proposal of Prime Minister started a jurisdictional conflict of a constitutional nature.[...] The Romanian President has no adjusting to veto, but he can ask the Prime Minister to renounce his proposal, whether he observes that the proposed grownup does not meet the legal conditions known to be a bit of Government". The same day, Cioroianu assumed the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
On 1 April 2007, Tăriceanu dismissed the ministers of the pro-Băsescu Democratic Party PD and formed a minority government with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania UDMR; Thus, theTăriceanu cabinet was approved by the Parliament on 3 April, with the support of the Social Democratic Party PSD.
Popescu-Tăriceanu's government survived a no-confidence vote on 3 October 2007, following a motion brought by the Social Democratic Party PSD. Although 220 members of parliament voted in favor of the motion and only 152 voted against it, the motion fell short of the necessary 232 votes.