Party leader investigated for corruption
The National Liberal Party, Romanias second-largest parliamentary party, has just received a severe blow.
Bogdan Matei, 29.09.2016, 13:45
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)
