Dacian Cioloș is nominated for prime minister

President Klaus Iohannis tasks Save Romania Union leader Dacian Cioloș with forming a new government.

Roxana Vasile, 12.10.2021, 14:00

After Monday’s marathon talks with parliamentary parties, president
Klaus Iohannis proposed Dacian Cioloș, the leader of the centre-right Save Romania
Union, as a candidate to form a new government. We recall that the minority government
led by Liberal leader Florin Cîţu and formed by the National Liberal Party and
the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania last week lost a vote of
confidence in Parliament. Only a few days ago, the president harshly criticised
the Save Romania Union for withdrawing from the government and allying itself
with the Social Democrats and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians in
opposition to bring down the government. After Monday’s talks, Klaus Iohannis gave
this statement:

The parties had different approaches, different
proposals, which they also made public. Of all these proposals, I decided to
nominate Dacian Cioloş as candidate for the position of prime minister.

In September, prime minister Florin Cîțu sacked the
then justice minister, who was a member of the Save Romania Union, and as a
result this party withdrew all its ministers from the government and went on to
vote alongside the opposition in favour of a no-confidence motion initiated by
the latter. Except that the Save Romania Union made it perfectly clear before
the vote that they were willing to rejoin the government, but not as long as Florin
Cîțu is the prime minster.

After his nomination, Dacian Cioloș said his party,
which is the third biggest in Parliament, would negotiate with its former
government allies with a view to forming a new government. Judging by their public
statements, however, neither the Liberal Party nor the Democratic Union of
Ethnic Hungarians in Romania are in any rush to start talks with the Save Romania
Union. The Liberals are inviting Dacian Cioloș to form a majority with the
opposition and the party of ethnic Hungarians are saying the Save Romania Union
must first clarify why they brought down the government they had been part of. From
the opposition, the Social Democrats say the president’s decision to nominate Dacian
Cioloș brings the country one step closer to early elections and see it as a political
game, given he has no working majority.

Under the Constitution, Cioloș has ten
days to form a parliamentary majority. If he pulls it off, he would become prime
minister for the second time, having previously occupied this position between
November 2015 and January 2017. He also previously served as European
Commissioner for Agriculture and was, until recently, the leader of the Renew
Europe group in the European Parliament. (CM)