Radio România Internațional

Tag: Liberal Party

  • Motion against the Finance Minister

    Motion against the Finance Minister

    Romanian Senators on Monday passed
    a simple motion filed by the Social-Democrats against Liberal Finance Minister
    Florin Citu. The National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union, the Democratic
    Union of Ethnic Hungarians as well as unaffiliated Senators voted against, while
    Social-Democratic Senators voted in favor. The initiators of the motion accuse
    Citu of making hazardous declarations at the start of his mandate, causing a
    spike in the exchange rate, which in turn entailed higher interest rates and
    price hikes for Romanians. Florin Citu claims the motion filed by the
    Social-Democratic Party is purely political and that he would step down only if
    the Liberal Party demands it. Citu says the former Finance Minister Eugen
    Teodorovici knew at the start of 2019 that the budget deficit would increase to
    4% without taking additional measures.


    The motion is not about me, it is
    a political undertaking that tries to conceal the dire political problems of
    Romania. Its initiators obviously want me to keep quit regarding the disastrous
    situation I found at the Finance Ministry. To them and to all the
    Social-Democrats I say the following: the National Liberal Party promised it would tell Romanians the truths at any cost. Enough is enough! Things cannot
    continue this way. The time you could steal without being held accountable
    stops here.


    In turn, Liberal Senator Alina
    Gorghiu says the Social-Democrats have no real reasons to launch criticism at
    Florin Citu. Social-Democrat Senator Stefan Oprea has told Florin Citu he is
    promoting measures that would take the budget deficit to figures he was
    estimating while he was in opposition.


    The figures you were prophesizing,
    at times in a very hysterical manner, when you spoke about the
    Social-Democratic governance, must come true today, and you need to make sure
    the 4.4% deficit is real, by any means possible. It matters little that budget
    revenues have been at a standstill for the past two months, or that public
    spending has skyrocketed during your term. All that matters is that your 4.4%
    deficit estimate should stand.


    Interim Social-Democratic leader
    Marcel Ciolacu believes the National Liberal Party did not understand
    Parliament’s vote of no-confidence against Florin Citu. After the motion was
    passed, Ludovic Orban said he would not replace Florin Citu, arguing the
    Social-Democratic Party is not entitled to criticize and ask for resignations
    after the disastrous budget it left behind. Under the Romanian Constitution,
    the passing of a simple motion does not necessarily entail the dismissal of the
    minister in question.

    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • The Liberals after the parliamentary elections

    The Liberals after the parliamentary elections

    In the last two years, after their candidate Klaus Iohannis won the presidential elections of 2014, the Romanian Liberals have managed to waste much of the electoral support and public trust that had brought them to that performance. One of Romanias historical parties, going back more than 140 years, the National Liberal Party has not managed to prove that their semi-failure in the local elections last summer was a one-off episode.



    Their dip in the polls was confirmed at Sundays parliamentary elections when the party won only 20% of the votes, lagging behind their main rival, the leftist Social Democratic Party, by a huge 25%. This result, unexpectedly bad even for the most pessimistic of Liberals, has troubled the waters at the top.



    Alina Gorghiu, the partys sole leader after co-president Vasile Blaga stepped down due to his run-in with the law, has also resigned. This is by all accounts a normal decision, despite being so rare in Romanian politics, and one that many political commentators ironically describe as the only inspired decision she ever made during her tenure.



    In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, Raluca Turcan, the leader of the Liberal Partys Sibiu branch that won the highest score in the latest elections, was unanimously elected interim president of the party. She pointed out that her mandate is for three months only, until the National Convention elects a new leadership.



    Raluca Turcan: “We will hold elections from the bottom up, so that we can truly choose the best people. And I believe that the National Liberal Party does have people with authority, with achievements and with expertise who must play a role in our political decisions.



    Turcan, who says she is not considering standing for president of the party, also announced her number one priority:



    Raluca Turcan: “Im not chasing any position. I only want to support the reconstruction of the National Liberal Party, which people see as the representative of the Romanian right wing.



    Former justice minister Catalin Predoiu is the only one to have confirmed his intention to run for president of the National Liberal Party. Having kept a low profile in recent months, after the disastrous results in the local elections for his Bucharest branch, Predoiu is seen by many observers as a solution, albeit not the perfect one. In any case, interesting times are ahead for the National Liberal Party, who is now forced to fight hard to earn back its former standing.

  • Party leader investigated for corruption

    Party leader investigated for corruption

    The co-president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Vasile Blaga, on Wednesday announced his resignation from this position and said he would also quit his role as the partys campaign manager for the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 11.



    Earlier on Wednesday, anti-corruption prosecutors had announced that Blaga was investigated in a corruption case. The former Liberal leader is suspected of having awarded preferential procurement contracts between 2009 and 2012, while an interior minister and Senate speaker. In exchange for awarding these contracts he allegedly received commissions of 700,000 euros from a businessman and from Gheorghe Stefan, the former mayor of the north-eastern town of Piatra-Neamt, himself investigated in several other criminal cases.



    According to anti-corruption prosecutors, Vasile Blaga got the money for his own use but also for the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL), which was in power at the time and whose secretary general he was. The Liberal Democratic Party, which back then supported the former head of state Traian Basescu, eventually dismantled, and most of its members, Blaga included, opted for a merger with the National Liberal Party, whereas Basescus most die-hard supporters decided to follow him and join the Peoples Movement Party (PMP).



    In a communiqué right after the resignation of their co-president, the Liberals said that Blagas decision to resign proved that he put the partys integrity principles above his political career. The Liberals have scheduled a meeting of the partys National Political Bureau at the end of the week.



    Political commentators expect a tense meeting, given the fact that the two wings of this party are yet to learn to work together. The older Liberals claim that their new colleagues, the former Liberal Democrats, have brought in with them long-standing judiciary problems, which are now a burden for the entire party. In their turn, the former Liberal Democrats say it is their right to appoint a new co-president to lead the party jointly with Alina Gorghiu.



    In another move, the Social Democrats made no effort to hide their satisfaction at the problems facing their competitors. They can afford to do that, given their comfortable lead of the Romanian left wing, while the already divided right wing has just got another blow. Several political analysts say they expect some of the traditional Liberal voters to switch towards new parties, such as the Save Bucharest Union, which, at the local election this summer, did much better in Bucharest than the PNL.

    (translated by: Elena Enache)