Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban say the country should hold early elections to establish a clear majority in Parliament which represents the will of the people.
Orban, who heads the Liberal Party, leads a minority government in a Parliament which is dominated by the Social Democrats.
The president and the prime minister met Friday to discuss how to proceed. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for later this year. Romania has never held early elections.
For early elections to take place, either the prime minister resigns or the government falls in a vote of no-confidence.
Orban, who’s been prime minister since November, declined to reveal what strategy the party would adopt, limiting himself to sating that an agreement had been reached that “the best solution” was early polls.
He says it would be “useful and good” for elections to be held simultaneously with local elections in the summer, adding he was biding his time to see political developments.
“Parliament is currently dominated by the Social Democrats who act like a brake in the government,” he said. “ It is absolutely necessary for citizens to choose representatives so that Parliament is a mirror for Romanians’ wishes.”
Orban said voters demonstrated in European elections, presidential elections and a referendum in 2019 that they did not want the Social Democrats, Romania’s biggest party, to run the country.
The Social Democrats won elections in 2016 and governed until October when they were ousted in a no-confidence vote after a minority party quit the ruling coalition.
Social Democrat interim leader Marcel Ciolacu responded
on Friday that he did not see the need for early polls.
Ciolacu said that in any case, early elections, would take place a few months
before they were due to held anyway.
