BUCHAREST, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Romania’s President Nicusor Dan said on Thursday he will nominate Liberal European lawmaker Siegfried Muresan as prime minister, despite a lack of a clear parliamentary majority to end a protracted political crisis that is pressuring the country’s investment grade rating.
Muresan, 44, now has 10 days to put together a cabinet list before he asks parliament for a vote of confidence.
The centrist president has made two prior nominations: his adviser Eugen Tomac who bowed out before a parliamentary vote could occur, and Liberal Adrian Vestea who failed to secure the required votes.
“I want to be direct: I have seen more electoral concern from political parties than for the national interest,” Dan said after consultations with parliamentary parties.
“We do not have a defined (parliamentary) majority.”
A previous pro-European broad coalition government led by Prime Minister and Liberal Party head Ilie Bolojan collapsed in early May when the leftist Social Democrats, parliament’s biggest party, quit and teamed up with the far-right opposition to file a no-confidence vote.
The Social Democrats have put forward their leader, Sorin Grindeanu, as candidate for prime minister and ruled out endorsing a cabinet they are not a part of.
The Liberals, part of the centre-right trio with the Save Romania Union and the ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, have ruled out forming another coalition with the leftists.
The European Union state narrowly avoided a sovereign ratings downgrade from the last rung of investment grade in July, with Fitch and Moody’s saying Romania’s ability to overcome political fragmentation and approve a 2027 budget that further cuts the largest budget deficit in the bloc will be key.
Standard & Poor’s has scheduled Romania’s ratings review on October 2.
Romania’s next parliamentary election is not until 2028, and the European Union state has never held snap polls, although Dan said earlier this month he no longer ruled out that option.
Analysts said snap polls would only benefit the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians, which opposes an EU rearmament initiative and aid for Ukraine and is leading opinion surveys by double digits.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
