In Romania the prime minister, Theodor Stolojan, has withdrawn his nomination. President Băsescu has chosen Emil Boc from the PD-L as the new prime minister designate.

Balkan Insight reports that Mr Stolojan did not cite any reason for his withdrawal, apart from a desire to see younger politicians be given positions of responsibility. Oddly, his decision came only a day after the two main parties partners, the PD-L and the PDS, had signed their coalition agreement.

As noted in a previous post (thanks to some inside information), the Hungarian minority party, the UDMR, will not be part of the coalition. Their support is not needed because the PD-L and the PDS have a large parliamentary majority. Balkan Insight reports that these parties have 329/471 seats in parliament. However, this is the first time that the UDMR have been absent from a coalition for 12 years. Apparently, the PDS opposed their inclusion, perhaps because the party wishes to appeal to the voters who supported the nationalistic Greater Romania Party in the election.

Article 103-3 of the Romanian constitution states that the prime minister, the government programme and the list of government ministers must be approved by a majority vote of deputies and senators. In a previous post, I only presented the results for the Chamber of Deputies. Here is the result for the Senate.

Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Conservative Party Alliance (PC), 33.9%
Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), 33.79%
National Liberal Party (PNL), 18.49%
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), 6.54%
Greater Romania Party (PRM), 3.55%
New Generation Party – Christian Democratic (PNGCD), 2.55%

The percentages are almost exactly the same as for the Chamber of Deputies.