January 16 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday named defence minister Mihai Fifor as interim prime minister following the resignation of Mihai Tudose, and invited the main political parties to consultations on Wednesday.
"I am dissatisfied and worried about this situation. Only one year after the elections, we already have two failed PSD [Social Democrat Party] governments," Iohannis said in a televised statement.
"I want to have a quick procedure that will lead to the establishment of a new government as this political uncertainty must not deteriorate into political instability and, more importantly, I want to prevent possible negative economic consequences of this crisis again generated within the PSD," he added.
Prime minister Mihai Tudose resigned on Monday evening after only six months in office, after the decision-making executive committee of the governing PSD voted to withdraw his party's support.
This is the second time in less than a year that PSD sacks its own government.
While in June PSD filed a censure motion against the government led by ex-prime minister Sorin Grindeanu, citing its poor performance, now it is unclear what exactly made the party withdraw support for Tudose.
Asked by journalists during a news conference on Monday night what Tudose had done wrong, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea spoke about increasing tensions between the party and the cabinet, without pinpointing a specific mistake.
"There were various reproaches, the general conclusion was that we can not continue like this because there is conflict between the party and the government, as well as inside the government," Dragnea told the news conference.
Problems might have started with a recent television interview, in which Tudose said that Dragnea often takes important decisions without consulting other senior party members.
Last week, Tudose and Dragnea disagreed on whether interior minister Carmen Dan should resign after a police officer was charged with pedophilia.
The Tudose cabinet was voted into office at end-June, after the government led by Sorin Grindeanu lost a no-confidence vote requested by PSD.
PSD and centre-right junior coalition partner Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in parliament.
At the end of 2017, Romanians protested for seven Sundays in a row against against the government's plans to appoint the country's chief prosecutor without the consent of the president. Critics see this and other planned changes to the Criminal Code as attempts to weaken the fight against corruption.
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