AUR, led by George Simion, poses as an anti-system party and is perceived as the main actor of the parliamentary opposition. Behind the scenes, however, the party formed alliances at the local level with both the PSD and the PNL or even the USR, and in recent months it managed to pass its laws in Parliament, with votes from the government arch, a rare thing for an opposition party.
The nocturnal debate of the state budget in Parliament also brought a sneaky amendment by AUR, the main Opposition party, which allocates 25,000 lei to an anti-abortion Cluj association. The vote came after midnight, being presented at the parliament tribune by deputy Alin Coleșa, who said that “it is about the allocation of an amount of 25 thousand lei, less than 5 thousand euros, for an association that really supports materially, but also spiritually the people of Cluj and not only – Cluj for Life”.
Later Sorin Grindeanu announced that checks will be made and that the amount can be canceled again at the vote. However, the draft state budget passed with the amendment submitted by the AUR.
In statements made by the leader of the AUR senators, Petrișor Peiu, he revealed that there was an initial agreement with the social democrats for the PSD and the AUR to mutually support some amendments for the amendment of the State Budget Law, which the PSD wanted to amend in the Parliament, after failing to obtain in the coalition the allocation of the necessary sums for a package of social measures.
“With the PSD, I had a discussion with those in the commission and I said this: we are not arrogant, we can give up the amendment with the CASS, but you also accept that the amendments we submit, which are much smaller, be supported. They initially said <
AUR Laws, voted in Parliament
However, this is not the only success recorded by the party in the Legislature. Recently, AUR managed to pass other laws in Parliament. This is the case of the project that allows the sports media to benefit from funding from the state and local budgets, which attracted 29 votes from the government arch in the decisive vote in the Senate.
Also, at the end of last year, the Parliament also adopted an AUR project that obliges club teams to have 40% Romanian players in a match, following another decisive vote, this time in the Chamber of Deputies, with 239 “for” votes being recorded, in the context where the project is initiated by the AUR and supported by several POT and SOS RO parliamentarians, but also members of the PSD, PNL, USR and the minorities. The law had initially been rejected by the Senate.
GOLD alliances
In the local elections of 2024, AUR obtained the leadership of 30 town halls, as well as over 3,500 positions of local councilors and another 159 positions of county councilors, a context in which the party formed political alliances at the local level throughout the country, especially with PSD, but also with PNL or USR, the former being reported since the end of 2024 in the local press.
Beyond the local alliances or the recent collaboration in Parliament for amending the draft state budget, PSD has been accused for years in a row of attempts to collaborate with AUR, including in the case of the canceled presidential elections in 2024. Moreover, PSD voted alongside AUR, in Parliament, for the simple motion against the Minister of the Environment, Diana Buzoianu, a context that attracted criticism from government colleagues regarding compliance with the coalition protocol.
What analysts say
“We have a very clear example here. PSD’s attempt to create a majority with AUR at the budget vote. So we were very close to having such a majority, which would have called into question the Bolojan government. If the deal had gone through between PSD and AUR, such an agreement would have had major effects on the budget.
And then it is clear that there is this potential. Because AUR has an important weight in the Parliament and uses this potential. PSD has often been tempted to go with AUR. The misunderstandings between the two parties did not make such a thing possible. But there are other examples, which have sometimes even been translated into legislative texts. So yes, there is this possibility that PSD in particular will be tempted to collaborate with AUR. Especially since PSD also has a wing of thinking very close to AUR”explains political analyst Ion M. Ioniță.
Collaboration with the AUR party is not excluded, however, neither in the case of the PSD nor in the case of the PNL, analysts say, and the party uses this to become more popular, also benefiting from an increase in the nationalist current in Europe, supported by a wing of the MAGA that aims for such parties to gain more scope in European countries.
“I am absolutely sure that there are people in both PSD and PNL who would not rule out a government with AUR and an alliance with AUR. Whether this will ever happen remains to be seen,” points out the political consultant Adrian Zăbava.
In the event of a possible “transformation” of AUR “everything would depend on the behavior, reactions, positions of the AUR leader mainly and less on what the party does or doesn’t do”which strategically maintains its opposition role in Parliament, he explains.
