December 15 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis said he will invite to talks all parliamentary-represented parties after the first round of consultations ended inconclusively.
"This first round of consultations led to a good exchange of views between myself and the parties' representatives but I can say that today the conditions for appointing a candidate to form a new government have not been met," Iohannis said in a televised statement broadcast on Digi 24 on Monday evening.
The president added that he will convene the new parliament on December 21.
According to local media, negotiations are in a deadlock as the leader of the National Liberal Party, PNL and former prime minister Ludovic Orban and Dan Barna, the leader of the Save Romania Union (USR), both want to take the position of president of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament.
The Social Democratic Party (PSD), which won the elections by a slim margin but fell short of outright majority, has nominated Alexandru Rafila, MP and World Health Organization representative for Romania for prime minister. PSD won 28.9% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 29.32% of the ballots for the Senate in the general election earlier this month.
Right-wing PNL nominated finance minister Florin Citu for prime minister. PNL won 25.19% of the votes for members of the Chamber of Deputies and 25.58% of the votes for Senate seats.
The centre-right alliance formed by USR and PLUS parties, which won 15.37% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 15.86% for the Senate, nominated former prime minister Dacian Ciolos for prime minister.
The right-wing nationalist party Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) nominated Calin Georgescu, a former UN rapporteur. AUR got 9.08% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 9.17% for the Senate.
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which garnered 5.74% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 5.89% of votes for the Senate, did not make any nomination so far.
On December 7, Iohannis appointed defence minister Nicolae Ionel Ciuca as interim prime minister to replace Orban who resigned in order to lead negotiations for building a centre-right parliamentary majority.
The president has said he favours the establishment of a centre-right coalition government.
"Centre-right forces received more than 50% of all cast ballots. A new government will be formed with them at the core," Iohannis has said.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name a prime minister-designate from the political party which has won the majority of seats in parliament, or hold consultations with all parties represented in parliament, if no such majority was achieved. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. The lawmakers can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
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