Romania looks for third PM in seven months

HINDUSTAN TIMES, 16th JANUARY, 2018-Romania’s ruling Social Democrats met Tuesday to nominate a new prime minister after power struggles within the party forced out the impoverished EU country’s second premier in seven months.

This latest crisis also prompted Japan’s visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on the final stop of a European tour, to cancel talks on Tuesday with the Romanian government, Romanian officials said Abe, who was expected in Bucharest late morning on the first ever visit to Romania by a Japanese premier, was due however to meet with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose announced his resignation late Monday after senior members of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) voted to withdraw their support at a leadership meeting. Last June, the party filed a no-confidence motion in then-prime minister Sorin Grindeanu, after he fell out with the powerful head of the PSD, Liviu Dragnea.