Last week has been filled with speculations about a change of the prime minister in Romania. Until now, however, no official decision has been taken.

President Traian Basescu as well as leading figures of his PDL-party thought aloud about a new, independent (i.e. not party-affiliated) prime minister to replace incumbent Emil Boc. For some days, Cristian Popa – the head of the Romanian Central Bank – was named as the first pick for the post of prime minister; especially after Popa met with Basescu at the Central Bank on Wednesday. However, only one day later internal sources reported that Popa had no interest in the post.

The main reason for a change of prime minister seems to be that Basescu wants to see Boc as the PDL party leader, a position that is incompatible with any government office due to internal party rules. The idea of an independent prime minister is not uncontroversial  within the PDL; furthermore, its coalition partner, the ethnic-Hungarian party, does currently not support the idea (according to Basescu, however, this might change after leadership elections in the end of March).