The
\nmerger between Save Romania Union and Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS)
\nconcluded with the congress held this weekend. The third-largest party in
\nParliament will be known from now on, more simply, as USR.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dacian
\nCiolo\u015f, former EU commissioner for agriculture and Romania’s PM after the 2015 Colectiv
\ntragedy, will be the party’s president until 2023, when the current leading
\nteam is to be assessed and the strategy for the 2024 legislative and
\npresidential elections put together. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
High-profile
\npoliticians are also among the party’s new vice-presidents: former leader Dan
\nBarna, who lost the election for party president by a small margin, Vlad
\nVoiculescu, C\u0103t\u0103lin Drul\u0103 and Claudiu N\u0103sui, all of them members of the
\ncoalition government until the recent clash with Florin C\u00ee\u0163u’s Liberals. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dacian
\nCiolo\u015f has the ambitious goal of making USR Romania’s top right-of-centre party:
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dacian Ciolo\u015f: Our
\ngoal is to be prepared in 2024 to become the country’s leading right-wing party.
\nThis means we have to grow as a party, to strengthen our public voice and to
\nincrease our membership.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nformer party leader Dan Barna lost to Ciolo\u015f, but his team is the one that has
\na majority in the party’s National Bureau. He insisted on the need for unity: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Dan Barna: We
\nare a team that will move on together and will make USR Plus a strong party, a
\nparty that will matter in any kind of negotiations in the coming months and
\nyears.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A party
\ncreated on the foundations of an NGO joined by civil activists, young employees
\nin multinational corporations and businesspeople, USR has aimed from the very
\nbeginning to be different from traditional parties like the Social Democrats
\nand the Liberals. However, ideological affinities with the Liberal Party gave
\nrise to the coalition formed shortly after last year’s parliamentary election,
\na coalition also joined by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After
\nthe justice minister Stelian Ion, a USR member, was dismissed, his party colleagues
\nleft the cabinet and tabled a no-confidence motion to dismiss PM C\u00ee\u0163u, blamed
\nfor causing the coalition to break up. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
USR
\nsay they will return to the government provided that the Liberals appoint
\nanother prime minister. But the negotiations between the two parties depend
\nentirely on whether Florin C\u00ee\u0163u’s minority government survives the
\nno-confidence motion, due for vote on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According
\nto commentators, USR would benefit from staying in opposition until the
\nelections of 2024. But since the former NGO has already had a taste of power
\nand some experience in governing, the Liberals may find it easier to convince
\nthem to return as partners in a ruling coalition. (tr. A.M. Popescu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USR, as the party will be called from now on, has a new president, the ex-PM Dacian Ciolo\u015f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":90030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[32984,30175,29286,30257,34466,29244,40363,32141],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-coalition","tag-election","tag-government","tag-party","tag-plus","tag-president","tag-right-wing","tag-usr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n