On Tuesday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis appointed Florin Cîțu, the current acting Minister of Finance and a candidate for the center-right coalition following the parliamentary elections earlier in December, to form a new government. Before signing the decree to this effect, the president called on the parliamentary parties to hold another consultation on forming a governmet. The Social Democratic Party (PSD), which has the largest faction but is unable to form a majority in the absence of coalition partners, did not attend the latest consultation, which was announced in the order of parliamentary weight of the parties, saying that, “the president was already biased in the election campaign, deciding in advance what kind of government he wanted, so the PSD doesn’t want to take part in this ‘cheap farce'”. The presidents of the coalition parties — the National Liberal Party (PNL), the reformist USR-PLUS and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) along withFlorin Cîțu — came together for Tuesday’s consultation, where Iohannis was handed over the coalition agreement on joint governance for 2020-2024, which was reached on Monday.
RMDSZ — the Romanian party which has the longest track record of being in government since the 1990 regime change — will have three ministers and a deputy prime minister if the governmetn is formed as the coalition partners expect. According to Iohannis, the center-right coalition had already demonstrated at the inaugural session of parliament that it had a majority in parliament, consequently accepted their joint offer and signed Cîțu’s nomination for prime ministerial candidate. Following the announcement by the head of state, Cîțu, who was in the presidency, thanked the head of state and the coalition for their trust, promising to do everything possible to preserve the stability of the coalition government and for the country to recover from the health and economic crisis as soon as possible. According to the candidate for prime minister, the ministers will be competent professionals, with specific tasks to be reported every three months. Cîțu also promised the president a “fair and predictable partnership on behalf of his government in achieving the common goal of developing the country”. The prime minister-designate has, in principle, ten days to ask the parliament for confidence in the government’s roster and program, but coalition parties plan to inaugurate the new Romanian government before Christmas.
Title image: Acting finance minister and prime-minister designate of Romania Florin Cîțu.
