December 24 (SeeNews) - Romania's new coalition government led by liberal prime minister Florin Citu received the parliament's backing in a 260-180 vote, the results of the vote showed.
The coalition of right-wing National Liberal Party (PNL), centre-right alliance USR-PLUS and Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) needed 228 votes in favour to take office. The parliament's sitting was broadcast live by Romanian TV channel Digi24 on Wednesday.
PNL, USR-PLUS and UDMR control among themselves 244 of 465 seats in the new parliament formed after the general election held on December 6.
On Wednesday evening, the government ministers took the oath of office at a ceremony led by the country's president Klaus Iohannis.
The cabinet lineup proposed by the three coalition partners received the support of 16 independent and national minority MPs. The other two political forces represented in parliament - left-wing Social-Democrat Party (PSD) and right-wing nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) voted against.
Former transport minister Alexandru Nazare from PNL will serve as finance minister in the new cabinet, whereas former finance ministry counselor Claudiu Nasui from USR-PLUS will be minister of economy, entrepreneurship and tourism.
Florin Citu's government has 18 ministers - 9 from PNL, 6 from USR-PLUS and 3 from UDMR. Citu will have two deputies - Dan Barna from USR-PLUS and UDMR's Kelemen Hunor.
The Citu cabinet replaces the liberal government led by Ludovic Orban, which was first appointed in November 2019, then lost a no-confidence vote in February 2020, and was re-approved by parliament in March.
Citu, 48, has served as finance minister in the cabinet led by Orban since November 4, 2019. He received a master's degree in economics and a doctoral degree in macroeconomics and international economics from Iowa State University in 2001. After graduation, he worked as an economist for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the European Investment Bank. He subsequently worked as investment banker at ING Group’s Romanian division until 2011.