Romanian President Traian Basescu on Monday named incumbent Prime Minister Victor Ponta, nominee of the election victory Social Liberal Union, to form the new government.

Basescu made the designation after his simultaneous consultations two hours earlier with the representatives of the parties which gained parliamentary seats in the general elections on December 9.

"Victor Ponta has been designated Prime Minister of the Government of Romania by President Traian Basescu, by a presidential decree on Monday," the Presidential Administration announced in a release.

"Only one proposal was made by the representatives of the political parties and the national minorities in the Parliament of Romania who attended the consultations for designating a candidate to prime minister of the Government," the release added.

Basescu's move is obviously easing the political tension in the eastern European country, avoiding a direct conflict between him and the victorious union, a conflict which might lead to another impeachment against the president.

The Social Liberal Union, a ruling coalition composed of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, won a sweeping victory in Romania's quadrennial parliamentary elections, with three times more votes than its main opponents, the pro-presidential Right Romania Alliance.

Before the elections, Basescu said for many times that he would never name Ponta again as the prime minister, compared reappointing the incumbent to swallowing a pig. Yet, with the union winning such an overwhelming victory, Basescu's room for maneuver is severely limited and it seems that he was forced to accept Ponta and to coexist with him.

According to the country's constitution, Ponta has to form a government within 10 days of being named premier, and win a vote of confidence in parliament.

Yet, as the Christmas is coming, the prime minister-designate will probably have his new cabinet installed just in this week.

Ponta, 40, has been the president of the Social Democratic Party since 2010. He is also the co-chair of the ruling Social Liberal Union, made of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.

On April 27, Ponta was designated for the first time as prime minister by Basescu soon after a no-confidence motion toppled the 78-day-long center-right government led by former intelligence chief Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, who became the shortest-serving Romanian prime minister in modern history.