Any move made by Romania's President Klaus Iohannis must be judged by two filters: 1) public interest; 2) his political interest in being re-elected in 2019. Faced with the test put up by the governing Social Democrats led by House speaker Liviu Dragnea, after their nomination of MEP Viorica Dancila for the seat of prime minister, Iohannis knows perfectly well that the public interest is for him to refuse the proposal. Electorally speaking, however, the interests of the president are different: he wants the PSD not to give a prime minister that can become a strong counter-candidate in 2019 and, moreover, he wants the PSD to settle the critical situation in public finances.