June 27 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis on Monday approved the nomination of Mihai Tudose as prime minister, the president's office said.
Tudose, minister of economy in the outgoing cabinet, was proposed for the position by a coalition comprising the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and its junior partner, the Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE).
He now has 10 days to put together his government, after which the cabinet lineup, including him, 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.
PSD and ALDE control 250 seats in the 463-seat parliament.
"This crisis that we are going through is seriously damaging Romania, its economy and its image abroad. We must have as soon as possible a new government that begins to work and solve problems that arose because of this crisis that started within the PSD," Iohannis told a press conference broadcast by local Digi 24 late on Monday.
The president also urged all parliamentary parties to complete all necessary procedures so that the prime minister and his team to start working this week.
Tudose's nomination came after last week the government led by Sorin Grindeanu lost a no-confidence vote requested by PSD, which withdrew its support for the six-month old coalition cabinet citing poor performance.
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.
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