UPDATE Iohannis: It would be optimal for the new government to be installed immediately after Christmas

President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that it would be "optimal" for the new government to be installed immediately after Christmas.

"It would be optimal for the new government to be installed immediately after Christmas, but you see that negotiations are negotiations and sometimes they go well and fast, then they stop. I don't think it's good to push politicians too hard from behind, to avoid the mistakes that have been made in Romania in the formation of coalitions, not to discuss sensitive issues, which after a while could lead to the split of the coalition. I prefer them to discuss the sensitive issues as well, find solutions or find common approaches and then to govern usefully for Romanians and for Romania," Iohannis said.

He stressed that it is obvious that parties also need to discuss offices.

"Sometimes people think that politicians should only talk about principles. It's true, they discuss principles, there are principles of government, governing programs, but someone has to put them into practice. The government is not made up of statements, the government is made up of people. And each party wants to impose its best people, and for that they negotiate, that's why there are several teams, some negotiate the positions and probably the names of the people who will be promoted, others negotiate committees in Parliament, others negotiate the governing program. Everything must be negotiated, otherwise a government cannot be formed," the head of state explained.

He said he would convene a new round of consultations with the parties and formations represented in the new parliament "when the results crystallize a bit".

Asked if he would intervene as a mediator if the parties did not agree, he replied: "One thing I can tell you clearly: I will not leave the country without a Government, but at this stage the role of the parties is to negotiate and come up with a prime ministerial proposal, a majority proposal and that's what I'm expecting from the parties now. "

"We need to have a government in a reasonable time. I don't know if we succeed in a week, which would be very good, but it shouldn't take more than a few weeks," Klaus Iohannis said.

Iohannis made this statement after participating in an event organised in Bolintin Vale on the occasion of the official closing of the national afforestation campaign called "A forest as big as a country!."