January 3 (SeeNews) - The two partners in Romania's government coalition, left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD) and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) on Tuesday named the 26 ministries in the new cabinet.
The cabinet led by prime minister Sorin Grindeanu features 4 ALDE ministers, 18 PSD ministers and four technocrats. Compared to the technocrat government, which was voted into office in November 2015, the PSD-ALDE government will have five more ministers which makes it the biggest one since 2000, when it featured 30 ministers.
Starting Wednesday morning, the new ministers will be heard in the specialized committees in parliament and most probably, the new cabinet will ask for a vote of confidence in the evening, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a statement broadcast by local TV station Digi 24.
Dragnea said that Sevil Shhaideh will be the deputy prime minister and also minister of regional development. The second deputy prime minister is ALDE co-president Daniel Constantin, who was also proposed for environment minister.
Sevil Shhaideh was the first candidate of the government coalition for prime minister but president Klaus Iohannis turned down the proposal. The second proposition was telecommunications minister Sorin Grindeanu. Iohannis accepted that proposal last week.
Alexandru Petrescu, general manager of postal operator Posta Romana, was named minister of economy. The head of budget and finance committee in the lower house of Romania's parliament, Viorel Stefan, was proposed to be minister of finance.
The coalition's proposal for the EU funds ministry is Toader Mihaela Virginia, who is general manager of the analysis, programming and evaluation department at the same ministry.
PSD and ALDE created a new ministry of EU Affairs, which will be led by PSD member Ana Birchall.
Sorin Grindeanu, 43, has been a PSD member since 1996. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics of Timisoara West University in 1997. In the period December 2014-November 2015 he served as minister of telecommunications and information society in Victor Ponta's cabinet. Starting June 2016, he is president of Timis county council.
PSD and ALDE control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in the new parliament following December 11 election.