Romania’s Liberals have new leaders

Romania's PM Florin Cîţu was elected president of the National Liberal Party, but his Cabinet is in a difficult position

Ştefan Stoica, 27.09.2021, 14:00

As
of Saturday, PM Florin Cîţu is the president of the National Liberal Party, the
leader of the ruling coalition in Bucharest, after defeating his former party chief
Ludovic Orban. The two spared no efforts during the battle for supremacy, and
commentators agree that the competition degenerated, severely damaging the
party image and, more importantly, virtually obstructing the work of the
government.

This
comes at a time when Romania is faced with yet another shortage of intensive
care beds for severe COVID cases, and with a dramatic increase in energy prices. The
Liberals’ new president, Florin Cîţu, sees his election as the starting point
of a trend that will change the country.

Florin
Cîţu: I promise to be the president of all
Liberals, regardless of your vote. We are a united party and will use all our
resources against our political opponent, the Social Democratic Party. You should
know that this was not just a campaign, it was a movement, started within the
National Liberal Party, a movement that will change Romania for the better.

While
for 60% of the participants in the Liberals’ congress Florin Cîţu is the
solution, for their former partners in the ruling coalition, USR PLUS, he is
the problem. USR PLUS left the right-of-centre coalition after the justice
minister Stelian Ion was dismissed out of the blue, and said they would not
return in the government unless Florin Cîţu gives up the PM post.

Without
USR PLUS, Cîţu’s Cabinet has no parliamentary majority to back it, and risks
being dismissed if the no-confidence motion tabled by USR PLUS and the
nationalist party AUR is validated by the Constitutional Court and passed in
Parliament. This
is precisely why the new Liberal leader announced negotiations with all
political parties, to put together a parliamentary majority to support his
cabinet.

The
Social Democrats in opposition seem to want Cîţu dismissed as well. They say
the days of the current government are numbered and that, in case the USR PLUS
– AUR motion fails, they have drafted their own no-confidence motion. The
Social Democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu had this to say:

Marcel
Ciolacu: Definitely, as soon as the Constitutional Court greenlights the
motion, the Social Democratic Party will vote in its favour. If the Court
dismisses the motion, we will immediately table our own motion against the
government and will invite the other parties to back it.

A
minority government is not a novelty in Romania. A government made up of the
Liberals and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, unofficially
backed by the Social Democrats, and headed by Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, was in
power between 2007 and the elections of 2008. The price was high, however: the
government had to give up all major reform projects and to adopt populist
measures, lacking financial support.

The
same threatens to be the case at present as well, although Florin Cîţu promised
adamantly to put an end to irresponsible public spending and to streamline public
administration. (tr. A.M. Popescu)