Romania names interim premier as turmoil deepens

BUCHAREST: Romania´s liberal interior minister Catalin Predoiu became interim premier on Tuesday, a day after the prime minister´s resignation deepened political tumult in the EU nation.

Pro-EU Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stepped down on Monday after far-right leader George Simion topped the first round of a tense presidential vote rerun.

His resignation opens the way for the far-right to be part of government if EU critic Simion wins the May 18 run-off and becomes president.

The president in Romania appoints the premier and other key posts and represents the country at EU and Nato summits.

The eastern European nation has gained in strategic importance since Russia invaded Ukraine, neighbouring Romania, with the presidential rerun closely watched in Brussels and Washington. Ciolacu said his Social Democrats (PSD) party would leave the ruling coalition but they are expected to remain in the government on an interim basis until after the election run-off.

“We are in the most complicated situation Romania has ever been in” since the end of communism in 1989, political analyst Sergiu Miscoiu told AFP.

Ciolacu´s resignation is a “gift to the future president” and “an act of political irresponsibility”, he added.

“It is a strategic mistake because it gives all the power to the next president” who will have “an extremely wide margin of manoeuvre”, Miscoiu said.

In the second round, Simion, who leads the nationalist AUR party, faces Bucharest pro-EU mayor Nicusor Dan, who narrowly edged out the ruling coalition´s candidate on Sunday.