Ludovic Orban announces advanced negotiations with Ilie Bolojan for the return of the Forța Dreptei party to the PNL and claims that Nicuşor Dan should not rule out early elections, convinced that PSD would have the most to lose in the event of such a biennial.
Invited on Friday, May 8, on B1 TV, the leader of the Forța Dreptei party, Ludovic Orban, said that he has been in discussions with Ilie Bolojan for a long time for the reintegration of the liberals from Forţa Dreptei into the National Liberal Party, in the context of the definitive break between PNL and PSD.
The former liberal leader claims that there is already, in principle, an agreement between the two formations regarding a “merger by absorption”, arguing that the reasons that led to his separation from the PNL no longer exist in the current political context.
“We, in principle, agreed on the perspective for the reintegration of the liberals from the Force of Justice into the National Liberal Party. (…) At the moment when the PNL broke free from the PSD, there is no longer any reason not to go together”, said Ludovic Orban.
He recalled that his break with the PNL occurred after the criticism leveled at the former president Klaus Iohannis and the liberal leadership for returning the PSD to the government, a decision that he publicly disputed from the beginning.
At the same time, Ludovic Orban praised Ilie Bolojan for the fact that he managed to stabilize the party in an extremely difficult moment, after the electoral failure of the liberals in the presidential elections.
“Ilie Bolojan accepted to be interim president of the party after the electoral catastrophe of the presidential elections carried out by Iohannis and the winning team, in which the candidate of the National Liberal Party took eight point something percent.
If Bolojan did not accept to take over the leadership of the PNL and campaign in the last week of parliament, putting all the confidence he had in the service of the party, the PNL would write with a number. About as much as Ciucă got, about as much as the National Liberal Party got in the elections”, said Ludovic Orban.
The former prime minister believes that the real stake for Ilie Bolojan is the clarification of the situation in the PNL and suggests that the liberals could work even from the opposition, without a new alliance with the social democrats.
“Early elections should not be ruled out”
Moreover, Ludovic Orban does not rule out the scenario of a PSD-AUR governing formula either.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be bad for Romania to see a PSD-AUR government. Let this bubble of fiction and completely unjustified hopes deflate a little more”, said the former prime minister.
Instead, he categorically rejected the option of a technocratic executive and states that the idea of an apolitical government is unrealistic in the current parliamentary context.
“There is no technocratic government. (…) The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union will certainly not support a technocratic government”, said Ludovic Orban.
Asked about the possibility of early elections, after President Nicușor Dan declared that he was not considering the dissolution of Parliament, Ludovic Orban said that this option should not be ruled out from the start.
The former liberal leader claims that the majority built after the installation of Nicușor Dan in Cotroceni was fragile from the beginning and that the relations between the coalition partners have completely deteriorated after the last moves of the PSD.
“For better or for worse, after the election of Nicușor Dan as president of Romania, a coalition formula could be formed that would ensure a majority. The unity in this coalition, which was quite fragile, was definitively destroyed by PSD’s aggression”. he also stated, pointing out that PNL and USR have become politically incompatible with the social democrats.
The leader of the Forța Dreptei party believes that the statement of the head of state, by which he excludes the anticipated and says that he will not dissolve the Parliament, significantly reduces his ability to influence the negotiations for the formation of a new Government.
“And here I found the president’s statement very strange. That he doesn’t want any advance notices and that he won’t dissolve the Parliament, that it is the president’s attribute to dissolve the Parliament”he also said, explaining that the simple possibility of early elections represents an important negotiating lever for the head of state, especially in the situation where a first government proposal would be rejected by the Parliament.
“Here he also loses a very important lever that he has at his disposal. The second appointment. You clearly say that if the second appointment does not pass and you anticipate, the second appointment of prime minister will pass the parliament. Even if he does not have a majority made up of the parties that make up the Government, that is, it is a minority government, without a parliamentary coalition. Either you cancel this exact status, in which you can give me the solution you want to the crisis, it seems very strange”, explained Ludovic Orban.
At the same time, the former prime minister claims that the PSD would be the party that would have the most to lose in the event of early elections, and that is precisely why the social democrats would try to avoid a new election.
“Because, at the present time, the only party that does not want early elections, I mean from the significant parties, is the PSD. Because the PSD would collapse”, concluded Ludovic Orban.
