(Bloomberg) -- Romania’s pro-European coalition will back Marcel Ciolacu to stay on as prime minister during consultations with President Klaus Iohannis, ahead of a final decision on the structure of a new government that’s expected later on Sunday.
The Social Democrats, the largest party in the country’s new parliament, will put forward their leader Ciolacu for the role of prime minister. The move is backed by the junior Liberals and other pro-European parties seeking to form a new ruling coalition and keep far-right forces away from power.
Liberal party interim leader Ilie Bolojan told reporters in Bucharest on Sunday that a vote on a new cabinet will follow in the coming days, as the parties still need to hammer out details of the cabinet’s line-up after completing work on a governing program.
The proposal will be discussed with Iohannis, who is likely to announce the prime ministerial nomination later on Sunday. The move will trigger the formal process of forming a cabinet that will eventually undergo a vote in parliament for final approval in the coming days.
The splitting of the cabinet could still pose challenges to the coalition. The two largest parties have governed together over the past three years but attacked each other during a now-canceled presidential campaign, laying bare the differences of opinion.
A new government is urgently needed to tackle a ballooning budget deficit that’s poised to surge to over 8.5% of economic output this year. It also needs to organize a new presidential ballot after a top court annulled the previous one following accusations of Russian meddling. The vote triggered the deepest political crisis in the country in decades.
The turmoil has rattled the mainstream parties, with the Social Democrats withdrawing from talks a few days ago because of bickering with their coalition partners over fiscal policy.
While saying he hopes a final accord on a majority government will be reached by the end of the day, Ciolacu also left open the possibility that the Social Democrats won’t be part of the cabinet and will back a minority government.
“We have a mandate to continue talks over a majority coalition but we also discussed the possibility of supporting a minority government formed by other pro-European forces,” Ciolacu told reporters in Bucharest on Sunday. “We don’t impose any conditions and the most important part is for Romania to have a functioning government.”
(Updates with premier proposal from first paragraph, comments in last.)
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