Romania President Rejects Muslim Woman as PM

Romania's President, Klaus Iohannis, on Tuesday rejected the Social Democrat Party's proposal to name Sevil Shhaideh as Prime Minister-designate.

"I have carefully weighed the pros and cons and I have decided not to appoint Sevil Shhaideh," Iohannis said.

"As a result, I am asking the PSD and ALDE [its coalition partner] to make a new proposal," he added.

The Social Democrats, PSD, had suggested the 52-year-old Muslim woman, who comes from Romania's Tatar minority, and a close associate of PSD chair Liviu Dragnea, because he was barred from the job due to a suspended jail sentence for electoral fraud in the 2012 referendum.

Dragnea said he was surprised by the President's decision and that neither he nor his fellow coalition members could find any constitutional reason for the President's refusal to accept Shhaideh. 

"This man wants to provoke a political crisis in Romania," Dragnea said adding he would come up with a decision by Wednesday.

"It won't be easy. We've received an avalanche of messages during the past few hours from people who demand that we suspend the President. It's not an easy call.

"But if we conclude after a thorough analysis to suspend the President, I will not hesitate. I took into consideration forming a commission to analyze whether the president's gesture is constitutional," Dragnea said.

The PSD triumphed in the legislative elections on December 11 by a wide margin and has formed a coalition with the smaller Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ALDE, to form a majority in parliament.

The PSD-ALDE coalition has 250 of the 465 seats in parliament and would easily be able to survive a vote of confidence and pass legislation. It would also make it possible for the PSD-ALDE...