In the future government, PSD will have 7 ministers, PNL four, USR three and UDMR two, according to sources inside the negotiations for the formation of the future executive. The new government could be installed around December 23, given that President Klaus Iohannis has summoned the new Parliament for December 20.
The leaders of the four parties will not meet again on Thursday for new discussions on the formation of the Government. A new meeting will take place next week, when there will also be a discussion with the Minister of Finance on the country’s budgetary situation. The governing program of the four parties is also expected by the end of next week.
According to sources in the negotiations, there will be no government rotation, as happened in the previous PSD-PNL coalition, and the four parties have established how the ministries will be divided. Thus, the PSD would have seven ministers in the future government, PNL – 4, USR – 3 and UDMR – 2. In addition to the Prime Minister, there will also be three Deputy Prime Ministers, all with portfolios. There will be no Deputy Prime Minister without a portfolio.
There will also be a reduction in the number of ministries in the future government. Energy will no longer have a separate ministry and will return to the Ministry of Economy, and Family will return to the Ministry of Labor. The Ministry of Family was established in 2021, when the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition was founded, and at that time it was headed by Gabriela Firea.
There are also discussions between the four parties regarding the return of Research and Innovation to the Ministry of National Education. The four parties have also agreed to a reduction in the number of state secretaries within the future government.
However, the pro-European parties have not yet reached a final agreement on the division of ministries. There is a possibility that the portfolios will be assigned by drawing lots if there is no consensus, political sources told Digi24.
The main discussions in Parliament are about the future government measures. In parallel, negotiations are being held for the government program, and the problem invoked by those from USR, from Digi24 sources, is that they do not have the figures from the Ministry of Finance.
Regarding the negotiations these days, in addition to the issues related to governance, there are also issues regarding the way this Executive will look, given that there are sources who say that it will be a sacrificial Government, that is, to take those unpopular measures precisely to reduce the budget deficit, to collect money for the state budget and to adopt important measures for the coming period. There are other voices who say that it should rather be a long-term Executive, which should assume governance for all four years, and when a new president comes, this Government should not be changed.
The common presidential candidate issue
At the time of the formation of the coalition, the four parties started discussions on a common candidate to represent the “pro-European camp” in the presidential elections.
According to sources from the negotiations, the parties established as a rule that this candidate should not be one of the current party presidents, namely Marcel Ciolacu, Ilie Bolojan, Elena Lasconi or Kelemen Hunor.
PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR and the group of national minorities signed on December 4, after the first round of the presidential elections, a pact for a pro-European and Euro-Atlantic coalition. Based on this agreement, the leaders of the four parties are negotiating an agreement to form a government that does not include radical right-wing parties.