Romania, in search of a new Prime Minister

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday is set to have consultations with parliamentary parties with a view to designating a new Prime Minister

Ştefan Stoica, 23.06.2017, 12:41

The left-of-center Cabinet led by Sorin Grindeanu was sacked by the very ruling coalition that had nominated it. The reason? Inefficiency and unacceptable delays in implementing the governing platform. On Monday, the Social-Democrats will be the first to be consulted by the countrys president, Klaus Iohannis, with a view to forming a new Cabinet. Next in line are the Liberals, the number one party in the center-right opposition, followed by Save Romania Union, the Peoples Movement Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

So this weekend parties will surely be making up strategies for Mondays talks with the president. Meanwhile Klaus Iohannis said the future Prime Minister has to be a man of integrity, without a criminal record, one who is capable of leading a Government and who is backed by a Parliament majority.

One thing is clear for now: Liviu Dragnea is very unlikely to make Prime Minister this time again. Dragnea received a suspended prison sentence for attempting to defraud the 2012 referendum to impeach the then president Traian Basescu, which makes it impossible for him to be appointed Prime Minister. The future Cabinet leader must be an honest and trustworthy person, a man of vision, and the Social-Democrats already have four options on the table that fit these criteria, Liviu Dragnea said. The Social-Democrats and the their ruling partners, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, have allegedly decided on the structure of the new Cabinet. This is mainly because the Social-Democrats are not expecting any surprise from president Iohannis. Here is what the Social-Democrat vice-president Doina Pana told Radio Romania.

“We have a governing agreement with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and a parliamentary agreement with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, which is still in place. Of course well have to decide who exactly well be nominating for the position of Prime Minister, and Im confident our choice will be greenlit by the president, as his main message so far was a call for stability. Then the Prime Minister will make up his own Cabinet.

The National Liberal Party argues that early elections is the best solution out of this crisis. Here is Liberal leader Ludovic Orban.

“We will not engage in any negotiation whatsoever with the Social-Democrats with a view to forming the new Government. We will vote against any Government structure proposed by the Social-Democratic Party. The Liberal Party is ready at any time to take over the ruling power, but we will do this the right way and on our own terms, which right now means holding early elections.

A time-consuming and highly challenging option in procedural terms, early elections was brought to the table as a way out of the political deadlock after the opposition claimed the Social-Democrats and their partners needed the votes of the parliamentary group of national minorities in order to oust their own cabinet. The Save Romania Union in turn refuses to collaborate with the Social-Democratic Party, although it might consider being part of a ruling coalition made up of the other parties. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians has not adopted any official standpoint in the matter of the new Government, expressing however hope that the present crisis would soon be over and the new Cabinet would be a political one. (Translated by V. Palcu)