Following the legislative election earlier this month, there is a new government in Romania.

On Monday President Băsescu nominated Victor Ponta, the leader of the Social Democrats, as PM. Ponta has been PM since May 2012.

PM-designate Ponta has now named his government. There are details in Romanian here and slightly fewer details in English here.

In the election, the USL coalition won 273 seats in the Chamber of deputies. Of these, the Social Democrats (PSD) and the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) won 159 seats, while the National Liberal Party (PNL) won 101 seats and the Conservative Party (PC) won 13 seats.

In the government, my calculations suggest that the PSD has 12 ministries, the PNL has nine and the PC has two. The UNPR has no ministries but does have one of the three Vice-PMs, with the PSD and the PNL sharing the other two.

So, as we would expect, the distribution of ministries pretty much reflects the parties’ support in the new legislature.

My understanding is that the government will be presented to President Băsescu. Will he object to any of the nominees? If he does, expect another post.

It goes without saying that the election result prolongs the current period of cohabitation.