Romanian president nominates Liberal Party leader Ilie Bolojan as PM

Centrist President Nicusor Dan nominated Liberal Party leader Ilie Bolojan as Romania's prime minister on Friday after weeks of negotiations on forming a coalition government to tackle the largest budget deficit in the European Union.

Bolojan will continue talks with four pro-European parties over cabinet appointments and fiscal measures and he is expected to ask parliament to give his government its vote of confidence next week.

The incoming government must lower the fiscal deficit from last year's 9.3 percent of economic output to avoid a ratings downgrade from the last rung of investment grade and unblock billions of euros worth of EU funds.

It will likely include the center-left Social Democrats, the country's biggest party, as well as Bolojan's Liberals, center-right Save Romania Union and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.

"It is in Romania's interest that the government is supported by a solid majority, and the parties understand this," Dan said.

The four parties and the president spent weeks wrangling over ways to lower the deficit, hesitating over unpopular tax hikes Brussels, ratings agencies and analysts say are inevitable but which are likely to further bolster the rising far-right.

The fiscal package will likely save around $6.9 billion and entail an equal mix of spending cuts, postponed investments and tax hikes.