Romania faces political deadlock after PM Citu ousted

BUCHAREST: Romania faced political deadlock on Wednesday following a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Florin Citu and mounting public anger against the country's political class.

President Klaus Iohannis, a Citu ally and member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), is under pressure to appoint a replacement prime minister from the rival Social Democratic Party (PSD) and has 45 days to find a candidate that will be accepted by parliament.

The PNL's former coalition partners USR Plus -- which rebranded as simply USR this week -- has called for a candidate from the PSD to fill Citu's role. The PSD won 29% of the vote in the 2020 elections but Iohannis chose to appoint Citu, whose PNL slumped to just 25% of the vote.