Romanian President Names New Premier After Court Pressure

(Bloomberg) -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis proposed a new candidate for prime minister as he pushes on with efforts to trigger early elections, despite a legal setback.

Finance Minister Florin Citu was put forward Wednesday to lead a new government after the Constitutional Court ruled out the nomination of caretaker Premier Ludovic Orban, whose administration collapsed just weeks ago.

Orban’s Liberal Party is pursuing a complicated path to what would be the Black Sea country’s first-ever snap elections, to capitalize on high poll ratings. But the opposition Social Democrats -- whose popularity has plunged after a stint in power tainted by corruption -- want the vote held in the fall as scheduled.

“After talks with the parties, I’ve decided to make a nomination to move things forward because we don’t want to block the country politically,” Iohannis, an ally of Orban, said Wednesday in Bucharest. “Mr. Citu will very shortly present his team and program and ask for a confidence vote in parliament.”

Citu has 10 days to draw up a cabinet and seek that vote. If two proposed governments are rejected, early elections remain a possibility, though the global spread of the coronavirus may prompt politicians to install a permanent administration more quickly.

Romania is used to political upheaval, having had more prime ministers than any other European Union nation since communism collapsed three decades ago. This time round, the Constitutional Court objected to Orban openly saying his candidacy was designed to fail in order to force an early vote.

Citu late Wednesday struck a different tone, saying he and his team would “try to gather a parliamentary majority.” Orban, alongside Citu at a news conference, said he’d support him.

But the fate of any Citu government remains unclear. The Social Democrats called his candidacy for premier an act of defiance against parliament and vowed to either abstain or vote against him.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andra Timu in Bucharest at atimu@bloomberg.net;Irina Vilcu in Bucharest at isavu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley, Michael Winfrey

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