Klaus Iohannis has not elaborated on his reason for rejecting the candidacy of Shhaideh, a 52-year-old politician of Turkish origin who comes from Romania's 65,000-strong Moslem community.
"I have properly analysed the arguments for and against and I have decided not to accept this proposal," Klaus Iohannis said in a televised statement on Tuesday. "I call on the PSD coalition to make another proposal."
The PSD, which has yet to comment on the issue, had put forward Shhaideh after its sweeping election victory on December 11 when it won 45 percent of the vote.
The PSD, along with its junior coalition partner and longtime ally ALDE, control 250 of the combined 465 seats in the two-house assembly - enough majority for their leader to be elected as the prime minister.
Liviu Dragnea, leader of the PSD, had withdrawn his bid to become prime minister because he is serving a two-year suspended sentence for electoral fraud.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
Her husband, 54, worked in the Syrian agriculture ministry for 20 years before emigrating to Romania in 2011 and marrying Shhaideh the same year, according to the PSD.
Non-profit investigative journalism group the Rise Project said that he has several times expressed his support for Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
and for Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
Website HotNews cited unnamed sources as saying that the security services had "strongly cautioned" against Shhaideh’s nomination because of the closeness of her husband and his two brothers to the Assad regime.
This might have made giving Shhaideh the necessary security clearances to be the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
member’s prime minister problematic.
"I suppose that his rejection is linked to questions of national security and because the United States would not have been very keen," political analyst Andrei Taranu told AFP.
PSD leader Dragnea had withdrawn his own bid to become prime minister because of a conviction that bars him from office. Shhaideh’s personal closeness to Dragnea -- he was a witness at her wedding -- has led to accusations that he will remain in charge behind the scenes.