Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has not yet appointed anyone to form the new government, after consultations with parliamentary parties. The head of state said he will make a nomination for the position of prime minister immediately after the vote of the presidents of the two chambers.
Before heading to the Cotroceni Palace, the leaders of PSD and PNL gave brief press statements. Ilie Bolojan announced that the PNL Political Bureau approved the formation of a governing majority with PSD and UDMR, with the prime minister from PSD and the endorsement of a joint presidential candidate.
Marcel Ciolacu stated that PSD has two options: forming a government with PNL and UDMR, with the prime minister from PSD, or supporting a minority government.
“I received the mandate to continue efforts to establish a majority coalition in this structure, with the prime minister belonging to PSD, and the colleagues nominated the party president. We also discussed the possibility of PSD supporting a minority government. This would involve a minority government formed by PNL and UDMR. If PSD supports a minority government, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies should be appointed by PSD,” Marcel Ciolacu explained.
“We had a meeting of the PNL Political Bureau where two important issues were discussed. The first was the formation of a coalition to ensure a majority in Parliament and establish a government as soon as possible in the coming days. Therefore, I received the mandate to finalize these negotiations so that the prime minister is proposed by PSD, and ministries are distributed according to each party’s share. Details regarding ministries will be finalized in the afternoon, and in the evening, we will have a Political Bureau meeting to validate the ministerial proposals. The second issue was the agreement to support a joint presidential candidate, to be decided collectively by the coalition parties,” PNL interim leader Ilie Bolojan stated in his turn.
As for AUR, the sovereignist party that ranked second in the parliamentary elections, his leader George Simion says that AUR will not participate in the consultations at Cotroceni Palace because Iohannis is an “illegitimate president”.
“We sincerely hope that the former resident of Cotroceni will leave. We do not recognize the legitimacy of Iohannis. As of today, he is an illegitimate president. We announce that we are starting the steps to vacate the position of president. We are not validating an illegitimate president through our presence,” said George Simion in front of the Cotroceni Palace.
The AUR leader specified that the party’s representatives will not enter the building for consultations, because they consider that Iohannis is an illegitimate president, whose mandate ended yesterday. Simion also said that his party will start the procedures in parliament to vacate the position of president:
“Iohannis, leave! Don’t deepen this constitutional crisis even further. Don’t make fun of the will of the Romanian people, manifested through voting. They voted in record numbers and their will must become law. We will do all the necessary procedures in the two chambers. “We have a proposal for prime minister, but we don’t have anyone to present it to, and we present it through you, Petrișor Peiu. We don’t go inside the palace, into the actual building, if Klaus Iohannis is there.”
USR on the other hand, did attend the talks with President Iohannis, but stayed for a few minutes just to tell Iohannis that his term as head of state has ende.
USR leader Elena Lasconi said she went to the meeting with President Klaus Iohannis only to tell him that his term as head of state has ended and that he must resign.
The former Cotroceni candidate stressed that Iohannis no longer has the legitimacy to lead and suggested that the Senate president should take over as interim president, according to the Constitution. The USR leader also expressed concerns about the current political situation in Romania. “We are about to lose democracy, we are in a hybrid war.”
“I don’t think we can talk about democracy anymore since December 6. I went to the consultations today – and I put it in quotes. We went to tell Klaus Iohannis that his mandate ended yesterday and that he must resign. “It was a short meeting of less than three minutes in which I communicated this to him, I communicated to him that he no longer has any legitimacy to hold consultations, that, according to the Constitution, the President of the Senate can become interim president”, said Elena Lasconi, on Sunday, in Parliament, after the consultations at Cotroceni.