Photo taken on Dec. 28, 2016 shows Sorin Grindeanu at a press conference held in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Friday gave mandate to Sorin Grindeanu, a second candidate proposed by the parliamentary majority for the post of prime minister, to form a new government. (Xinhua/Agerpres)
BUCHAREST, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Friday appointed Sorin Grindeanu, a second candidate proposed by the parliamentary majority, as prime minister and mandated him to form a new government.
The ruling coalition led by the Social Democrat Party, nominated Grindeanu on Wednesday, a day after the president rejected its first nominee Sevil Shhaideh, a female Muslim from the ethnic Tatar minority.
Iohannis' move eases political tension in the eastern European country, avoiding a direct conflict between him and the victorious union, a conflict which might lead to an impeachment against the president.
According to the country's constitution, Grindeanu has 10 days to form a government, and win a confidence vote in parliament.
"We have established the action calendar for the following days, so that we have a government invested as soon as possible," Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea said in a press conference together with the prime minister-designate.
Grindeanu on Tuesday will forward a list of the executive and the governing program. The following day, the investiture vote will take place after the program is presented and debated at a plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
The parliamentary majority proposed the swearing-in ceremony be held late Thursday. Grindeanu said that if the president accepts the proposal and agrees to swear in the cabinet on Thursday, the new government would hold its first meeting soon afterwards.
Grindeanu, 43, became chairman of the Timis County Council after local elections in June 2016. He has been a member of the Social Democratic Party since 1996 and served as communications minister between December 2014 and November 2015.
The Social Democrats won more than 45 percent of the vote in the Dec. 11 general elections. Together with its junior partner, the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals, it has an outright majority of 250 seats in the 465-member parliament.
