December 19 (SeeNews) - Romania's left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD), which won the December 11 general election, and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) signed a government coalition agreement on Monday, which gives them majority in parliament and will allow them to propose the new prime minister.
The agreement to establish the Governing Coalition for Development and Democracy spans four years and defines the proportional distribution of portfolios in the new government, according to data posted on the two political parties' websites.
PSD and ALDE will control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in the new parliament.
PSD won 154 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (out of 329) and 67 in the Senate (out of 136), according to data from Romania's electoral bureau, BEC. ALDE won 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 9 in the upper house, which makes it the fifth biggest party in the new parliament.
In order to have majority in parliament and have the right to name the new prime minister, PSD had either to enter into a coalition with ALDE, or attract 11 members from other parties that entered parliament.
PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a televised news conference on Monday that he will discuss a possible coalition with the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) , which won 21 seats in the lower house and 9 in the Senate.
Now, ALDE and PNL will propose the next prime minister to replace incumbent technocrat head of government Dacian Ciolos.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name the prime minister from the political party, which has won the majority of seats in parliament in elections. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. The MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
On Tuesday, PSD and ALDE refused to attend consultations with president Klaus Iohannis over the appointment of a prime minister until the new parliament convened and final results of the vote were announced.
Iohannis earlier suggested that he will not name the PSD leader as prime minister due to Liviu Dragnea's two-year suspended jail sentence for a referendum fraud in 2012. Iohannis strongly stated that he will take into account integrity criteria in the process of appointing Romania's new prime minister.