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| - Talks among Romania's political parties have not yet pieced together a majority behind a new prime minister, President Klaus Iohannis said Monday, one week after parliamentary elections in the eastern European country. It would take "at least one more set of consulations for things to crystallise" Iohannis said on television after talks with all parliamentary groups. The National Liberal Party (PNL), in government for the past year, hopes to build a centre-right majority with newly formed party USR-PLUS and Hungarian minority party UDMR. But discussions are deadlocked over who should fill the roles of premier and speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. The liberals hope to make Finance Minister Florin Citu PM, while USR-PLUS backs Dacian Ciolos, a former prime minister and president of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Talks "are not going as fast as we would like, there are some frictions, but we want them to continue", said Ludovic Orban, the PNL chief who last week resigned as prime minister after his party far outdid expectations in the vote. President Iohannis himself had made clear his preference for a PNL-led government, with the three centre-right parties in parliament totalling 244 MPs, above the 233 threshold for a majority in the 465-seat legislature. "We want a centre-right coalition to govern for the next four years. We want a deal based on trust and balance", former PM Ciolos said. Sunday's general elections resulted in a fragmented parliament, with the liberals (PNL), seen as favourites, coming in second with 25 percent, compared to 29 percent for the Social Democratic Party (PSD). At just under 32 percent, turnout was the lowest since 1989. ii/tgb
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