Leonardo Badea, PM option, if motion against incumbent gov't succeeds

Vice-Governor of the National Bank of Romania Leonardo Badea is one of the picks considered by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for prime minister if the censure motion against the incumbent government succeeds, according to PSD national chairman Marcel Ciolacu.

"He is one of the options considered at the moment and he is a man who deserves to have this proposal," Ciolacu told Antena 3 private broadcaster on Sunday evening.

He said President Iohannis had "made a big mistake" at the start of the health crisis by failing to come up with a proposal for a national union government.

"President Klaus Iohannis made a big mistake for failing to come up, when the coronavirus crisis started, with a government of national union. Romania would have looked completely different now. (...) There were all the political forces involved in this effort, not just the PSD and the National Liberal Party (PNL); it would have been another much more coherent communication and I am sure that that government would not have moved away from the Romanians' agenda. He made a major mistake. A president back then should have placed the interest of the Romanians above the interest of the PNL and only the political agenda of the PNL," added Ciolacu.