Romania’s PM-designate announces completion of cabinet lineup

Bucharest, Oct 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) Romania's Prime Minister-designate Dacian Ciolos announced that he has presented to Parliament his government's program along with the list of his minority cabinet.

Ciolos, 52, who was appointed by President Klaus Iohannis last week, said at a press conference here that his government "will focus on the obvious current priorities. We need solutions and immediate measures for the health crisis ... and at the same time to prepare for the energy crisis, which could strongly hurt people this winter", reports Xinhua news agency.

Ciolos, who leads the centre-right Save Romania Union (USR), stressed that "we are prepared to take responsibility for those difficult measures".

"I hope the hearings and the vote (in Parliament) can be organised as soon as possible, right this week... We are ready to take the plunge, to get to work as soon as possible, if this government gets Parliament's go-ahead."

Parliament will give a vote of confidence to the new government in a few days.

The proposed new cabinet would be made up entirely of members of the USR, which has just 80 seats in the 465-member Parliament.

Ciolos lacks the support of the two other major parties (the National Liberal Party, PNL, and the Social Democratic Party, PSD) and the other smaller opposition groups there.

Local analysts believe that the likelihood of Ciolos receiving the support of the required more than 50 per cent of the vote in Parliament is very low.

Marcel Ciolacu, leader of the PSD, the largest party in Parliament, called the program proposed by Ciolos a draft with "zero chances".

Romania's coalition government led by PNL President Florin Citu collapsed on October 5 in a censure motion initiated by the PSD one month after the USR announced its withdrawal from the cabinet.

Source: IANS