Romania taps social democrat Marcel Ciolacu as new PM

The Romanian parliament voted in Social Democrats chief Marcel Ciolacu on Thursday to become the country’s next prime minister amid a planned rotation within the ruling coalition.

“I will try to live up to the expectations of the Romanians,” Ciolacu said after being elected with a 290-95 majority, according to local media reports.

Parliament also confirmed Romania’s new government, which features a once-prominent Brussels figure — former permanent representative to the European Union, Luminița Odobescu — as foreign minister.

The government is backed by a wide-ranging coalition including Ciolacu’s center-left Social Democratic Party (PSD), the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) and the ethnic Hungarian UDMR group.

The government change is part of a planned rotation for the prime ministerial position between the the coalition’s two major partners, the PSD and the PNL.