Romania: President Appoints Dancila As First Woman PM

By

By Ana Maria Luca

Romanian Social Democrat MEP Viorica Dancila is set to become Romania’s first woman prime minister.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday agreed to appoint Social Democrat MEP Viorica Dancila as the country’s first ever woman prime minister.

Dancila, 55, was nominated by the ruling Social Democrat Party on Tuesday to head Romania’s third cabinet in the last year.

Her predecessor, former PM Mihai Tudose, handed in his resignation after losing the backing of his own party after he came into conflict with the Social Democrats’ leadership.

Iohannis said Wednesday that he accepted the ruling party’s proposal to sack Tudose and replace him with Dancila as a way to maintain stability in the country. He also said he is cognizant of the fact that the Social Democrats hold a majority in the Parliament and the opposition would have a hard time forming a cabinet.

“I invite all those involved in the procedures to mobilize their resources and get to work fast. It’s possible that by February 1 the whole procedure will be finalized and the new cabinet needs to get to work and solve problems, not cause them,” Iohannis said.

Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea announced Wednesday evening that the Parliament would convene on January 29 for a confidence vote.

Romania’s interim cabinet will be headed by Defence Minister Mihai Fifor.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *