Romania's defense minister, retired general Nicolae Ciuca, currently acting prime minister, is most likely to be nominated as prime minister-designate for a full term by president Klaus Iohannis after the round of negotiations with all political parties, G4Media reported.

"We have a very difficult year ahead of us, with a health and economic crisis, we will have a vaccination campaign, we need to pass the budget and carry out a series of reforms. The party will support this formula, even if Nicole Ciuca has no political experience. We need a figure that imposes authority to the governing partners, within the party, and in Brussels," sources at the top of PNL explained for G4Media.

One of the would-be ruling partners, the reformist block USR-Plus, has already expressed concerns with the nomination of a retired general for the prime minister seat.

"The military solutions are not long-term solutions since Romania is a European democratic state," USR president and co-president of the block, Dan Barna, commented. He said that each party would come up with its own candidate, and president Iohannis will have to choose one.

USR-Plus has been promoting Plus president Dacian Ciolos (co-president of the reformist block), a former EU Commissioner for Agriculture and former prime minister in 2016, as its candidate for the prime minister position. 

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)