The members of the parliamentary group of the Party of Socialists (PSRM), which is the largest one, had a meeting with President Nicolae Timofti to discuss the possible candidates for the post of Prime Minister. They reiterated their position that they will not take part in the creation of a government coalition with the parties that do not accept their conditions, IPN reports.

The meeting with the Socialist MPs is the first of those that the head of state will have with all the parliamentary factions before designating a candidate for premiership.

The chairman of the PSRM Igor Dodon reiterated the three basic conditions that the Socialists impose for accepting forming a government coalition: termination of the Association Agreement with the EU, holding of a referendum on the country’s foreign course, and inclusion of the History of Moldova and the Moldovan Language subjects in schools.

“As long as none of the parliamentary parties, not even the Communists, accepted these conditions, the Party of Socialists decided not to take part in the negotiations on the formation of a parliamentary majority. The Socialists do not consider it necessary to propose a candidate for premiership and do not see themselves part of the future Euro-unionist government,” stated Igor Dodon.

The President’s adviser Ion Paduraru said that the first consultations for designating the candidate for the post of Premier were held on January 13. “The Socialists were asked if they intend to form a coalition with somebody, if they have candidates and if they will support the new government. They imposed certain conditions that are not within the President’s competence. The faction said they have candidates, but proposed no one,” he stated.

Meetings with the other four parliamentary groups will be held until the end of this week. After the head of state fields him/her, the candidate for premiership, within 15 days, will ask for the Parliament’s vote of confidence for the government program and the Cabinet.