With Leader in Jail, Romania's Ruling Party Battles for Survival
Romanian Ruling Party Battles for Survival After Leader's Demise
(Bloomberg) --
Romania’s Social Democrats are fighting to remain the country’s ruling party after losing European Parliament elections and watching its leader get sent to prison for corruption in the space of 24 hours.
The party was already struggling to contain its clash with the European Union over the rule of law, similar to the bloc’s disputes with Hungary and Poland. Officials are meeting to discuss the future and how to retain a majority in parliament as the opposition plans a no-confidence motion to sink the government.
Striking a defiant tone in the face of the adversity, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila -- the Social Democrats’ interim boss after Liviu Dragnea was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars -- vowed to stay on and not call early elections.
“We’ve decided to fix our mistakes and move forward,” Dancila said Tuesday after an initial meeting with party members. “We want to keep governing, revert to what we promised in 2016 and move past this very difficult situation.”
She may be plotting to remove Dragnea’s allies in the cabinet, according to the HotNews.ro portal, which cited sources it didn’t name. Dancila also said they decided to name former deputy premier Paul Stanescu as executive party leader.
Losing Patience
The demise of Dragnea, who’d been kept out of the prime minister’s job by a previous conviction but ruled over politics from behind the scenes, was an embarrassment for the Black Sea nation, which is hosting the EU’s rotating presidency through June. But few in Brussels will rue his downfall after he spearheaded efforts to ease punishments for corruption and left the budget deficit on track to blast through the bloc’s limits.
Romanians were already losing patience. Protests persisted since the Social Democrats began their much-criticized overhaul of the judiciary but voters on Sunday also backed a referendum that will block part of the reforms.
“We have to start rebuilding the party,” said Victor Negrescu, a former minister who remains a senior party official. “We need to return to our social-democratic values, reconnect with our European partners and come out of this isolation that we find ourselves in.”
While the party received about half the backing in Sunday’s European Parliament vote that it got when swept to power in 2016, President Klaus Iohannis -- a staunch opponent of Dragnea’s plans -- is set for a resounding re-election later this year.
Many Social Democrat and local mayors who’ve opposed Dragnea in the past say recent events offer a chance for a fresh start. Some have even suggested the government should step down.
| Potential new party leaders | |
|---|---|
| Viorica Dancila | Prime minister |
| Lia-Olguta Vasilescu | Former labor minister |
| Marian Oprisan | Head of Vrancea county |
| Paul Stanescu | Former deputy premier |
| Eugen Teodorovici | Finance minister |
For now, the loudest calls for that to happen are coming from outside the party.
“It’s clear this government has to be toppled,” Ludovic Orban, leader of the opposition Liberal Party that won Sunday’s EU elections, said by phone. “We’re going to hold talks to secure the votes in parliament for our no-confidence motion.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Andra Timu in Bucharest at atimu@bloomberg.net;Irina Vilcu in Bucharest at isavu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley, Balazs Penz
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