The National Liberal Party is undergoing a period of self-immunization—one it did not seek, but could not avoid.
If the party led by Ilie Bolojan manages to adapt to the aggressive restrictions that President Nicușor Dan-PSD impose on it and a politically-influenced justice-system, this will not only strengthen it electorally, but will also make it an object of study in terms of tactics and strategy.
In such troubled waters, when even survival is a success to be envied, the Liberals can calmly aim for significantly more ambitious objectives: deep internal reform, and through this, which will move it forward on the scale of evolution.
The rhetorical criticism and the legal challenge of rulings made by the Bucharest Tribunal are both natural and legitimate reactions. And respecting the court’s sentences, no matter how unjust and democratically unhealthy they may be, helps to consolidate an image of a party attached to the principles of the rule of law.
It is also a good omen to continue on the path of a definitive break with the presidential practice of annexing the party to objectives that are not its own and which, as the last decade has shown, ends up diminishing its attractiveness and electoral power.
And the permanence of the break with the PSD – both ideological, moral and practical – gives up the historic opportunity for the Liberals to reverse the balance of forces with the PSD in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
In this direction, things have already started to move visibly, the only really relevant unknown being to what extent Ilie Bolojan and the Liberals will be able to hold their breath in a long race, not just right now.
For the Liberals, an encouraging thing (to which it would be worth paying due attention) is that the more stubbornly they behave as they have done under Bolojan’s leadership, the more their opponents are inclined to make mistakes more seriously, more often and with irreversible effects.
Nicușor Dan, PSD, and more recently also some of the elite in the justice system were clearly taken by surprise by the Liberals approach. And right now, they are just improvising.
Par excellence, improvisation betrays a deficit of strategy, a blockage of the long-term vision, an inability to take over and keep the strategic initiative on the political front.
The fact that the Liberals tend to rely on coherence and long-term results has become quite visible in the last two months, but it seems to have even been stated on Thursday evening at the emergency meeting of the PNL, organized following the new decisions of the Bucharest Court.
Ilie Bolojan’s comments are revealing: “We must remain consistent, responsible and keep the party on the path in which we can meet with the citizens with our heads held high, including in 2028.” The key to this quote is clear: 2028, when Romania holds general elections.
The very fact that the PNL leader points to 2028 suggests an appetite for reconstruction and, therefore, for internal reform, since that date offers little without serious work. It also signals a deliberate effort to move beyond the short-term logic of tomorrow.
Moreover, Bolojan sets the Liberals in clear contrast with PSD and President Dan, whose outlook seems confined to the next round of government-formation talks and to the discredited practice of opaque, sometimes abusive political deals.
PNL now has a wide and promising political opening.
Nicușor Dan and PSD, each from his own perspective, have become fixated on AUR, which also means condemning the PNL to relative irrelevance.
Under the pretext of saving the country from AUR, Nicușor Dan has chosen to keep it effectively in PSD’s hands, which also means keeping PNL constrained. It is hard to imagine a divorce more at odds with the spirit of the vote that carried him to Cotroceni.
In order to mitigate the competition that AUR makes and to be sure that PNL does not grow, PSD on the one hand AUR-izes its political discourse, and on the other hand relies on the contest of a Nicușor Dan who in theory fights with AUR, and in practice suffocates the PNL. And at the same time, he collaborates under the table with AUR, for the sake of some momentary advantages.
However, the result is lamentable for Nicușor Dan and for PSD: AUR is not going down in the polls, on the contrary, the current context ensures its potential for growth and PNL survived the putsch and of late is rising in the polls.
In fact, thanks to the behavior of his opponents – from Cotroceni (Dan) and Kiseleff (PSD) – the mission of the PNL and Ilie Bolojan is simper: all they have to do is to rely on common sense, not to forget the lessons of the past and not to bother the two enemies as long as they are making mistakes.
Moreover, while Nicușor Dan and PSD are both terribly isolated, PNL is also in a favorable position in this regard: the relationship with USR, strongly influenced by the current context, is being strengthened and opens to the two parties a front of long-term joint collaboration.
Here, too, PNL and USR must be able to reconcile their individual interests with the broader interests of the alliance, both pragmatically and on principle.
Again, the more the mistakes made by Nicușor Dan and PSD increase, the more the PNL and USR’s task of harmonizing their interests and outlook becomes easier.
Crises always carry the same contradiction: they bring opportunity for some and disaster for others.
The poachers got caught in their own trap they set for the Romanian prime minister
