Romanian president asks finance minister Citu to form government

Citu said Alexandru Nazare, a former deputy finance minister, was nominated for the top finance job. The USR-Plus grouping will hold seven posts, including justice, health, transport and EU funds ministries.

Romania's centrist president, Klaus Iohannis, asked Finance Minister Florin Citu on Tuesday to lead a centre-right coalition government able to shore up public finances and boost investment. Citu’s centrist Liberals, who have ruled for the past year, will team up with the centre-right grouping USR-Plus and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.

Citu said a vote of confidence to endorse the new Cabinet could take place in parliament late on Wednesday. The coalition will control around 55% of parliamentary seats, a majority that analysts say may be relatively fragile. The Cabinet faces the daunting task of restoring confidence in an economy that has been hurt by years of fiscal largesse and political instability, coupled with neglect of rundown infrastructure and public services, which have brought Romania's sovereign debt to the brink of losing its investment-grade status.

"I will do everything possible to ensure a stable and long-lived government," Citu said after his appointment as prime minister-designate. Both the Liberals and USR-Plus have pledged to reverse efforts by previous leftist-led Cabinets to undermine the independence of the judiciary as it scrutinises corruption and misuse of funds. Massive anti-corruption protests have occurred in recent years.

Including Citu as prime minister, the Liberals will hold ten posts in the new Cabinet, including finance, labour, farm, education, interior and foreign affairs ministries. Citu said Alexandru Nazare, a former deputy finance minister, was nominated for the top finance job.

The USR-Plus grouping will hold seven posts, including justice, health, transport and EU funds ministries. They have nominated lawmaker Stelian Ion, a key critic of leftist attempts to weaken the judiciary, for the top justice job. UDMR will hold four Cabinet posts. Citu said he expected the confidence vote to start at around 1600 GMT on Wednesday, after individual parliamentary hearings for ministers.

The relatively poor European Union state of under 20 million people has reported almost 600,000 coronavirus cases and 14,636 deaths this year, and expects its economy to contract by 4.2%. Ratings agencies have Romania on their lowest investment grade with negative outlooks.