December 30 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis on Friday appointed Sorin Grindeanu as the country's new prime minister, the president's office announced.
Grindeanu was proposed for the position by a government coalition comprising election winners Social Democrat Party (PSD) and junior partner Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE).
The president signed the decree of Grindeanu's appointment on Friday and will ask parliament to approve the cabinet - to be proposed by the new premier - and the government programme, according to a brief announcement posted on the website of the president's office.
Once appointed, the prime minister has 10 days to name the government ministers. Then, both the prime minister and the new cabinet must be approved by parliament. The MPs can reject a proposed government up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
However, that will hardly be the case, as coalition partners PSD and ALDE and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which has pledged to support the coalition in parliament, control a comfortable majority in parliament. PSD and ALDE control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in parliament following December 11 election, while UDMR has 30 seats.
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.
In mid-December, Iohannis said that the integrity criteria for local politicians remain valid in the process of appointing the new prime minister. The integrity criteria made it impossible for PSD leader Liviu Dragnea to become Romania's new prime minster because he was issued a two-year suspended jail sentence for a referendum fraud in 2012.