The National Liberal Party has a new president

The biggest opposition group in Romania, whose beginnings go back 140 years ago, the National Liberal Party for the first time elected a woman as its co-president.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 19.12.2014, 14:17

Political commentators all agree that Romanian politics needs a lot of young blood. 25 years after the collapse of the communist regime, a system that did not encourage meritocracy, the Romanian political scene is still dominated by figures who are not impressive by either their professional abilities or their morality. Instead, Romanian politicians stand out more through their provincial political discourse, their adventures in court and involvement in corruption cases.

Given the state of the local political scene today, commentators say Romania needs a new type of politician: young, educated, well intentioned, in tune with the times and able to bring about true change. It is against this background that Alina Gorghiu, a lawyer by training and a member of the Romanian Parliament, has become, at only 36, the co-president of the biggest opposition party in Romania, the Liberal Party.

The party itself is going through a delicate stage, as it was recently created through the merger of a party with the same name and the Liberal Democratic Party following negotiations after the European Parliament elections in May. Gorghiu will be chairing the party together with the Liberal Democrat leader, Vasile Blaga. She has replaced the future president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis who won last month’s presidential elections.

Here’s Alina Gorghiu speaking about her goals: “I have taken note of the signals given by my colleagues with respect to reforming the National Liberal Party and increasing Parliament’s credibility. This party will be a reliable partner of Romania’s president.”

Gorghiu’s success has been acknowledged by her only counter-candidate, Ludovic Orban, in a rare display of fair play in Romanian politics: “Now that the competition is over, I will stand by the president of the National Liberal Party, Alina Gorghiu to put into practice Klaus Iohannis’s project.”

Klaus Iohannis supported Alina Gorghiu for the position of party president: “By its actions, the Political Bureau has confirmed the wish of the National Liberal Party to show how politics should be made in Romania in order to be closer to the people.”

Alina Gorghiu now has the chance to succeed where another young politician, the 42-year old prime minister of Romania Victor Ponta, risks failing. After almost five years as the president of the Social Democratic Party, the general impression is that Ponta has been unable to reform this big centre-left party, in spite of his promises. Many commentators even say, however, he didn’t even try.