Romanian President Nominates Liberal Party Chief for Premier

(Bloomberg) -- Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday nominated the leader of the Liberal Party for prime minister as he seeks to swiftly resolve months of political uncertainty before the home stretch of his own re-election campaign.

Ludovic Orban will now have 10 days to patch together enough votes in parliament to win approval for a new government. He’ll primarily seek backing from allies who helped oust the Black Sea country’s third prime minister in as many years last week. Should two attempts to confirm a prime minister fail in row, an early election may have to be called.

Orban -- who has no relation to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in neighboring Hungary -- will attempt to rally a fractured group of parties. Even if he does, it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to muster a reliable parliamentary majority and he may be forced to lead a minority cabinet until general elections slated for next year.

“We’re in a political crisis and I urge politicians to consider that and quickly reach a solution that will benefit all Romanians,” Iohannis said in a televised speech from Bucharest. “It will be very difficult to negotiate support for complex laws in the current parliament.”

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, one of the opposition leaders who helped Orban topple outgoing the government Viorica Dancila, has already said his lawmakers won’t support a liberal government. Other parties laid out conditions in exchange for their backing.

If elected, Orban said his government will focus on addressing economic imbalances and improving the business environment and restructure the administration.

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, Balazs Penz, Michael Winfrey

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.