The President must appoint as soon as possible today a prime minister who can be approved by Parliament and who can present a budget for next year approved by the legislature, Victor Ponta, the United for Romania parliamentary group's nominee for the post of prime minister, said on Thursday following the political group's consultations at Cotroceni Palace.

'While we are sitting here and engaging in dances between the parties, with each one saying who they do not want and what they want, outside Cotroceni Palace Romania is collapsing both economically and socially and I am talking about extremely important social groups, from entrepreneurs to pensioners, military personnel, teachers and doctors. So the President must appoint as soon as possible today a prime minister who can secure not only the votes for investiture but also the votes for the 2027 budget,' Ponta said.

He said he had told the head of state that the situation in Romania was the worst it had been in the past 25 years.

'I took the liberty of telling him that he is in the worst situation compared with the other presidents. The parliamentary situation, the economic situation and the international situation are worse than at any time in the past 25 years,' he said.

Victor Ponta said he had confidence in Nicusor Dan.

'I remembered that when I used to come here and Mr Basescu was President, I would never drink water because I was afraid. This time I drank some. So that means I have confidence that he will do a good job,' he commented. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Ghita; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)