In November 2015, Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned following protests sparked by a deadly nightclub fire, and President Klaus Iohannis appointed Cioloș as his successor. The latter proposed a technocratic cabinet composed of twenty-one members, a third of them women. The cabinet won approval from Parliament on a 389–115 vote: the main Social Democrats (PSD) and National Liberals (PNL) were both in favour, although a number of legislators from the former party defied the leadership to vote against the cabinet. Additionally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) was opposed. He considers his two main achievements while in office to have been an increase in transparency, including the online release of salaries and expenditures for public institutions and financing contracts; and a reduction in bureaucracy that involved the elimination of numerous formalities. Ahead of the 2016 parliamentary election, Cioloș received the endorsement on behalf of the National Liberals (PNL) and of the Save Romania Union (USR), in turn urging voters to back either party. When these parties lost the election, the prime minister expressed his regret; the following month, he was succeeded by Sorin Grindeanu.