News / EU

Romania parliament endorses Grindeanu's cabinet

Wednesday, 04 January 2017 6:49 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 04 January 2017 6:49 PM ]

Romanian Prime minister Sorin Grindeanu speaks during the swearing in ceremony at the Romanian Presidency headquarters in Bucharest, January 4, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Romania's parliament has granted a vote of confidence to the Social Democrat-led cabinet of leftist Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

The new government won the vote of confidence by a wide majority on Wednesday as 295 lawmakers voted for and 133 against, according to an official count.

On December 30, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis named Grindeanu as the new prime minister following the leftists’ victory in the parliamentary elections of December 11.

"I hope to build a Romania where development is reflected in the wellbeing of all citizens," Grindeanu told the parliament's two chambers.

The 43-year-old premier's government is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Wednesday night.

The new cabinet has 26 portfolios compared to the 21 positions of the previous government.

Together with their traditional ally, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group, Grindeanu’s Social Democrat Party (PSD) has a definite majority of 250 seats out of the 465 seats of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The appointment of Grindeanu came after Iohannis rejected a proposal by the PSD to nominate Sevil Shhaideh as the first female and first Muslim prime minister in a move that sparked an outcry in the country already reeling from years of political and economic woes.

The president gave no reasons for his rejection, although reports said the female politician’s alleged support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, could have been an issue.

Shhaideh is also married to a Syrian man. She is from Romania's small and long-established Turkish minority, with many saying that her Muslim faith could not have been a problem for Iohannis.

The Wednesday victory brought the PSD back to power after a one-year break. The party was ousted following angry protests in 2015 over a fatal nightclub fire blamed on corruption.

Romania, which joined the European Union 10 years ago, is one of the poorest countries in the eurozone.

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