BUCHAREST, June 13 -- More than a month after its government collapsed, Romania still does not have a new one, and on Thursday its president tried to break the deadlock the only way he had left: by reaching outside parliament altogether for a prime minister.

Nicusor Dan, the pro-European centrist who won the presidency a year ago after a chaotic, twice-run election, nominated his own adviser, Eugen Tomac, to form a government. Tomac, a 44-year-old member of the European Parliament who leads a small party with no seats in Romania's own legislature, now has ten days to assemble a cabinet and survive a confidence vote.

Because the parties do not agree with each other, the only possible solution is a prime minister who is independent of the...