\nPrime
\nminister
\nNicolae Ciuc\u0103 is
\nthe new president of the National Liberal Party, in the ruling
\ncoalition. A reserve army general and former chief of staff of the
\nRomanian army, he only
\nrecently
\nentered politics and the Liberal Party with the help of president
\nKlaus Iohannis. His party membership is so new, in fact, that he
\nneeded a special exemption to be able to run for president of the
\nparty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ciuc\u0103 is
\nreplacing Florin C\u00ee\u0163u, who took over the party six months ago and
\nwho was forced to resign because of frictions with the Social
\nDemocrats, also in the ruling coalition, frictions which some feared
\nmay lead to a break-up of the coalition. Ciuc\u0103, on the other hand,
\nalso enjoys the support of the Social Democrats and seems to be the
\nperfect guarantee for peace within the coalition. He promised
\nstability, recalling that Romania is going through a period of
\ncrisis, from the pandemic to rising costs for energy, food and fuel,
\nnot to mention the humanitarian crisis generated by the war in
\nUkraine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nTogether
\nwith our partners, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic
\nUnion of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, we have undertaken to
\nimplement reforms and modernise the state to benefit citizens, not
\nfor low stakes and sterile arguments. The Romanian people are
\nexpecting results and efficiency from us, not populism and constant
\nbickering.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nHis
\npredecessor Florin C\u00ee\u0163u, who has a background in finance, says the
\npopulism comes from a number of social measures requested by the
\nSocial Democrats and which he
\nblames
\nfor the high inflation and interest rates we see today. He says
\nhe regrets not taking
\na
\nstep back when his party first formed a government with the Social
\nDemocrat, forgetting that he was the one
\nwho
\npaved the way for this coalition in
\nthe first place when
\nhe caused the departure of the Save Romania Union from the
\ncentre-right coalition that came to power following the 2020
\nelections.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPolitical
\nobservers believe the National Liberal Party has lost its autonomy
\nand
\nthat
\nits moves are decided elsewhere, proof of which is precisely
\nthe
\npromotion of inexperienced leaders
\nlike Ciuc\u0103 and C\u00ee\u0163u, both of whom
\ncame out
\nof nowhere. With
\na domestic and international crisis under way, this debate, is, for
\nthe time being, postponed.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nWith both
\nparliamentary and presidential elections in 2024, things will be
\nheating up. The extremely sensitive subject of Ciuc\u0103’s
\nalleged plagiarism will then most likely resurface. A well-known
\ninvestigative journalist who has uncovered many
\ncases of academic fraud published an article in January in which she
\nargued that Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 plagiarised parts of his doctoral thesis
\nfrom 2003. He is the third Romanian prime minister involved in a
\nplagiarism scandal, after the Social Democrats Victor Ponta and Mihai
\nTudose. Ciuc\u0103 denies the accusation of plagiarism and says he will
\nhave the hounour and dignity to make a decision with respect to
\nresigning as prime minister and party leader when the relevant
\nauthorities publish a conclusion on this subject. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Without an alternative candidate, prime minister Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 is elected leader of the National Liberal Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":91860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-91859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n