Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta reshuffled his Cabinet yesterday after his Interior Minister quit, and the central bank governor warned that Mr Ponta’s feud with the President could weaken the leu and make it hard to finance the budget.

Mr Ponta’s Social Liberal Union (USL) is embroiled in a battle to oust suspended President Traian Basescu that has stalled policymaking, drawn criticism from abroad and raised concerns over Romania’s IMF-led aid deal.

A July 29 referendum on whether to impeach Mr Basescu won 88 per cent support but the turnout was below the 50 per cent needed to make it valid.

The Constitutional Court has asked to see the voters’ list at the time of the referendum before ruling on the true size of the electorate and the validity of the vote, a ruling it was supposed to give last week but has put off to August 31.

Mr Ponta suffered a blow early yesterday when Interior Minister Ioan Rus quit, citing political pressure in connection with the court’s work on the referendum.

Mr Ponta moved quickly, naming party loyalists Mircea Dusa and Titus Corlatean as new interior and foreign ministers, Judge Mona Pivniceru as Justice Minister, and new development and parliamentary affairs heads, saying he wanted to change the Cabinet’s strategy.

He said his co-party leader and interim president Crin Antonescu had approved his nominations.

The new Cabinet members be sworn in yesterday.

The minister in charge of liaising with the business sector, Lucian Isar, also resigned later in the day for personal reasons, and was to be replaced, a senior USL member told reporters.