Romania’s PNL opts for reformist alliance’s PM candidate or early elections

Romania’s interim Prime Minister and president of the Liberal Party (PNL), Ilie Bolojan, confirmed that his party will not vote for a government with Social Democratic Party (PSD) ministers and warned that if negotiations on a new government remain deadlocked, Romania may head towards early elections. However, he added that the odds of early elections are rather slim.

Speaking to Prima TV, Bolojan recalled that his party had already nominated MEP Siegfried Mureșan, backed by a reformist alliance of PNL, USR and UDMR, for the post of prime minister, and that no other option had been discussed since.

Ilie Bolojan rejected the possibility of supporting a cabinet with Social Democratic ministers only to later join the opposition and support the government’s policies on a case-by-case basis. There is no guarantee that PSD will change the attitude it demonstrated during the negotiations on the Wage Law, he explained.

However, Bolojan said that the party’s position could be revisited after official consultations resume. President Nicușor Dan announced that such consultations would take place this week.

“When the consultations resume, we will clarify the position after a discussion with our PNL colleagues,” he added.

The PNL president said that there had been informal discussions recently, but that the negotiations had not produced a concrete formula for the future government.

He described the situation in recent weeks as one in which the parties had failed to reach an agreement on the composition of the Government.

“But no formula was reached this summer,” Bolojan said.