Romania has moved closer to a new coalition government to end a months-long political stalemate.
The ruling Liberal PNL party announced on Sunday that they had reached an agreement with their former Social Democrat (PSD) rivals.
The two parties, which shared power in Romania between 2012 and 2014, said they had agreed on an unprecedented “rotation” of prime ministers until the December 2024 legislative elections.
PNL candidate and former military general Nicolae Ciucă is likely to be appointed on a one-and-a-half-year mandate before being succeeded by PSD nominee Marcel Ciolacu.
“We have completed talks on the political structure of the future government,” Ciolacu told journalists after a meeting between the PNL and their Hungarian minority partner (UDMR).
The two parties will submit their first choice for the prime minister to President Klaus Iohannis on Monday.
Romania’s politics was thrown into crisis two months ago when the PNL-led coalition was ousted in a no-confidence vote following the dismissal of a junior minister.
Ciucă had already failed this month to form a government after the Liberals initially resisted joining forces with the Social Democrats.
But the two parties have eventually agreed that the country needed a stable government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new coalition government will need to manage a severe peak in COVID-19 infections, as well as clean up public finances.
