Romanian parliament backs PM's post-election cabinet reshuffle

Sunday's reshuffle followed Ponta's surprise defeat in November's presidential election, which cost him the support of two allies and could see his position as leader challenged early next year.

In the reshuffle, the technocrat finance and energy ministers lost their posts, along with eight other members of the cabinet.

"This has been a vote of trust and for stability," Ponta told reporters after his new cabinet cleared parliament with 377 "Yes" votes and 134 "No".

Ponta's coalition, which now controls about 58 percent of lawmakers in parliament, was weakened by the departure of the ethnic Hungarian UDMR party after he unexpectedly lost a presidential election on Nov. 16.

That prompted long-term Ponta allies, the Liberal Reformists, to lobby for cabinet posts. The centrist party now controls the energy and the environment portfolios.

Under the restructuring, the finance and budget ministries were merged into a single body with Finance Minister Ioana Petrescu losing her post and incumbent Budget Minister Darius Valcov taking the job.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)