October 11 (SeeNews) - Romania's president Klaus Iohannis said on Friday he will nominate a prime minister from opposition right-wing National Liberal Party (PNL) by October 15 latest, in order to form a new government after the Social Democrat cabinet led by Viorica Dancila lost a no-confidence vote.
"I prefer a political government and I will not seek a solution other than a political government," Iohannis said in a televised statement following consultations with political parties regarding the forming of a new cabinet.
"PNL has made it very clear that it is willing to take over the government. All other formations have stated that they will support in one way or another such an approach. So from now on it is quite clear that we are heading towards a PNL government or a government with PNL at its centre," Iohannis said.
The president also made it clear he will not nominate a prime minister from the former ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD).
All political parties represented in parliament were present at the consultations with the president - except PSD.
The president's proposal for a new prime minister will have to win a confidence vote in parliament to take effect. If the parliament refuses to endorse two of the president's nominees for prime minister, the head of state can dissolve parliament and call early elections.
Romania is scheduled to hold its next general election in late 2020 or early 2021.
On Thursday, Dancila's government lost a no-confidence vote requested by opposition right-wing National Liberal Party (PNL). The censure motion called for the ousting of the social-democrat government because of its incompetence, which made the country miss a lot of chances.
PSD holds 206 of 465 seats in parliament. PNL has 94 MPs, USR holds 40, PMP has 12 MPs, UDMR holds 30 seats and Pro Romania has 39 seats. The remaining seats are filled by 17 MPs representing minorities, and by 27 independent MPs.
On August 26, the government coalition comprising PSD and ALDE collapsed as ALDE leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu announced that his party is leaving the coalition. Tariceanu said that he and ALDE have been waiting for Dancila to come up with "an articulated plan for relaunching the government", but as she failed to do so, they decided to leave the alliance.
(1 euro = 4.7498 lei)