Consultations at the Cotroceni Palace

On Sunday we will find out the name of the Prime Minister designated to form the next government, after two weeks of intense negotiations, with many tensions, and it could be the current Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

The coalition of PSD, PNL, UDMR and minorities went to Sunday's consultations at the Cotroceni with this proposal, a mandate approved in separate meetings of the PSD and PNL leaderships.

All parliamentary parties were invited to the Cotroceni Palace for talks, but already AUR representatives have boycotted the consultations.

They came to Cotroceni but did not join the talks because they claim that the president's mandate would be illegitimate as of today, this despite the Constitutional Court having said that according to Article 83 of the fundamental law, Klaus Iohannis must remain in office until a new president is elected next year.

Representatives of PSD, PNL, UDMR and the national minorities group came to the consultations at the Cotroceni Palace together and made no statements after the talks, but will resume negotiations in an extended format to form the next government.

PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu received a mandate from the party he leads to present two working scenarios to the head of state.

One option is that he remains as prime minister, but there is also the possibility that the opposition Social Democrats could support a minority government made up of pro-European political parties.

Marcel Ciolacu, President of PSD: I took my mandate from the National Political Council, from my colleagues, to continue the efforts to have a majority coalition in the Romanian Parliament in this structure and the mandate of Prime Minister to be given to the Social Democratic Party, with colleagues nominating the party president, but we also discussed the possibility that the Social Democratic Party could support a minority government formed by pro-European forces, namely the National Liberal Party, the UDMR.

The Liberals do not have a proposal for prime minister, but they support the option put forward by the Social Democrats, according to the acting president of PNL, Ilie Bolojan.

Ilie Bolojan: We have received a mandate to close these negotiations in such a way that the prime minister will be proposed by the Social Democratic Party, and the ministries will return, of course, according to the discussions and the weight of each party. The government program has practically been finalized and this afternoon it will be closed in its entirety, and following the discussions that we will have, the details related to the ministries and the proposals that we will make will also be closed.

AUR representatives arrived in front of the Cotroceni Palace shortly before the scheduled consultations, but they did not want to enter into talks with President Klaus Iohannis, whose legitimacy in office they dispute and who they believe should resign.

AUR leader George Simion: We do not recognize Klaus Werner Iohannis' legitimacy. As of today he is an illegitimate president. Together with my colleagues, we want to announce to the Residential Administration the initiative to vacate the Cotroceni Palace. We will not legitimize by our presence an illegitimate president. We are here, we have a proposal for Prime Minister, Mr. Petrisor Peiu. We have no one to express this position to.

The Constitutional Court has previously said that, according to Article 83 of the fundamental law, Klaus Iohannis must remain in office until the election of a new president next year.

Translated by: Radu Matei