June 28 (SeeNews) - Romania's left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD) and its coalition partner the centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) on Wednesday named the ministers in the new cabinet, which is expected to be voted into office on Thursday.
The cabinet led by prime minister Mihai Tudose features four ALDE ministers, 22 PSD ministers and one technocrat member, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a statement broadcast by local TV station Digi 24. Seventeen of the newly proposed ministers have also been part of the outgoing government led by Sorin Grindeanu.
Starting Thursday morning, the new ministers will be heard by specialised committees in parliament and, most probably, will be put to the vote in parliament in the evening, Dragnea also said.
PSD and ALDE control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in parliament following December 11 election.
Mihai Fifor, a former secretary in the internal affairs ministry in 2009 and 2012, was proposed as minister of economy. The former chief of Romania's tax agency unit in the Black Sea port city of Constanta, Ionut Misa, will head the finance ministry.
The coalition proposed that Rovana Plumb continue to head the EU funds ministry.
The only technocrat member in the government will be justice minister Tudorel Toader, who had the same post in Grindeanu's government.
On Monday, Romania's president Klaus Iohannis approved the nomination of Mihai Tudose as prime minister.
Tudose, 50, is PSD's deputy president. He graduated from the Faculty of Legal and Administrative Sciences of the Dimitrie Cantemir University of Bucharest in 1995. He has served as economy minister twice - in Grindeanu's cabinet and in Victor Ponta's cabinet between December 2014 and November 2015. Two years ago, Tudose withdrew his doctorate thesis following accusations of plagiarism.
Tudose's nomination came after last week the government led by Grindeanu lost a no-confidence vote requested by PSD. The party withdrew its support for the six-month old coalition cabinet citing poor performance.