Confusion has reigned following the Romanian elections earlier this month | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images Romania’s Social-Democrats make new nomination for prime minister Former communications minister Sorin Grindeanu is the incoming coalition’s second attempt to fill the job.

Romania's Social-Democrat Party (PSD) nominated Sorin Grindeanu for prime minister, looking to head off a potentially destabilizing clash with the president.

Grindeanu, a 43-year old former communications minister, would be the incoming coalition's second attempt to fill the job. President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday rejected the candidacy of Sevil Shhaideh, who would have been Romania's first female and first Muslim head of government.

Iohannis, who emerged from the National Liberal Party, now in the opposition, did not explain his refusal, but former president Traian Băsescu suggested it could have been related to concerns about Shhaideh's husband, a Syrian who spent most of his career working in the country’s agriculture ministry, who is reportedly a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Grindeanu is currently the president of a county council in western Romania and a leader of the local PSD branch. He served as a minister for the information society between December 2014 and November 2015, in the PSD government led by Victor Ponta, who resigned amid street protests against corruption.

"As far as I know, he is not a Hezbollah or Hamas agent, maybe it will be discovered that he’s KGB or that he murdered someone. I hope that this proposal will be taken seriously," PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said on Wednesday when announcing Grindeanu's nomination.

Dragnea cannot claim the prime minister job for himself because of a law that bans people with a criminal record from being a prime minister. Dragnea received a two-year suspended jail sentence in April for attempting to rig a referendum. "I didn’t want to get a position myself by forcing a law that everyone says is unconstitutional and unfair," Dragnea said on Wednesday.

Loyalty was the first quality he referred to when explaining Grindeanu's proposal. Shhaideh, his first proposal, was largely seen as a stand-in for Dragnea. This pick appears to follow the same logic. "We had to find a solution with a colleague who is loyal to the governing program and to the party," Dragnea said.

The PSD decided to find a replacement and avoid a clash with the president, Dragnea said. He said he initially wanted to push through Shhaideh's nomination, but that she decided to stand down after her family received death threats following the president's rejection of her candidacy. "They are in a situation where they are afraid to get out of the house," Dragnea said.