After his first round of consultations with the parliamentary parties, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis concluded that it is too early for the appointment of a prime minister-designate.

The political parties came up with four candidates for the prime minister seat, two of whom came from the would-be center-right ruling coalition - a detail that perhaps weighted a lot in the president's decision to summon the second round of consultations.

"This first round of consultations led to a good exchange of views between the representatives of these parties and me, but I can say that today, the conditions for appointing a candidate to form a new Government are not yet met," said president Iohannis in a press statement after the consultations, quoted by Hotnews.ro.

At the consultations with president Iohannis, the biggest parliamentary party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), proposed medical doctor Alexandru Rafila, Romania's representative at the World Health Organisation, for the prime minister seat. PSD also proposed a "national unity government."

The other two major parties in parliament, the Liberal Party (PNL) and the reformist block USR-PLUS, came up each with their own candidates - finance minister Florin Citu and PLUS president Dacian Ciolos.

Negotiations among the two for a joint candidate reached a deadlock over the weekend.

UDMR, which is supposed to support the ruling coalition of PNL and USR-PLUS, says that the biggest of the coalition parties (namely PNL) should nominate a candidate.

The fifth parliamentary party, AUR, nominated Calin Georgescu for the PM seat. Georgescu served as executive director of the National Center for Sustainable Development between 1997 and 2013. In 2013, he became president of the European Research Center of the Club of Rome. He also served as Secretary-General in the Ministry of Environment and Director of the Directorate of International Economic Organizations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also mentioned as a representative of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

(Photo: presidency.ro)

andrei@romania-insider.com