The newly reelected head of state started negotiations with political parties to seek a parliamentary majority that would back a new government to replace that of democrat liberal Emil Boc, which collapsed in October.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minster-designate Liviu Negoita said he turned down his designation and Basescu is expected to name a new prime minster, most likely a democrat liberal.
„The goal is to have a government by New Year’s at the latest if we can’t have one by Christmas,” Basescu said.
Basescu also said Romania would have received a third disbursement of an IMF-led rescue loan in December if it had had a legitimate government. After Boc’s Cabinet collapsed in a no-confidence vote, the Parliament thumbed down the proposed government of economist Lucian Croitoru and refused to hold a confidence on the government proposed by Negoita, the second prime minister-designate.
Political instability prompted the IMF and the European Commission to withhold further disbursements of the EUR20 billion rescue loan Romania relied on. An IMF mission is currently in Bucharest for technical talks on the 2010 budget and IMF mission head Jeffrey Franks said the country is likely to receive a third EUR1.5 billion loan tranche from the Fund in February.