Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu has notified the Constitutional Court about President Traian Basescu’s refusal to name a new Foreign minister instead of Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, the resignation of whom Tariceanu demanded earlier this year. The head of government says a judicial conflict of constitutional nature has appeared between the Government and the Presidency on the issue.

Tariceanu asked Foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu to resign on February 2 after his ministry failed to inform him about the situation of two Romanian citizens retained by US troops in Iraq. On February 19, the PM submitted the nomination of a new minister, Liberal Adrian Cioroianu, for presidential approval.

There has been no answer to the request ever since and Ungureanu still acts as an interim head of Romanian diplomacy despite his resignation on February 4, when he took responsibility for the situation of the two Romanian workers in Iraq.

It is the latest in a string of conflicts between Tariceanu and Basescu, which have been affecting Romania’s political stage for many months.