Paradoxically, Romania would be safer with a minority PSD government
There couldn’t have been a climax more fitting with the way the the political crisis began when the suitor, Adrian Vestea (the PM designate) went to the bride’s house (the AUR party headquarters) to ask for her hand.
The way that Ilie Bolojan’s government was overthrown was disgraceful, hypocritical, pure pantomime and showed sheer stupidity, and the final scene reflected this perfectly.
Of course, Veștea will disappear into sublime anonymity as quickly as he shot to fleeting national notoriety. But in the long term, Romania will have to face the echoes of the prime minister designate’s obscene courtship, nominated by a president committed to the strategic isolation of extremists.
In the gallery of monumental errors committed by Nicușor Dan, the episode of washing AUR with Veștea detergent and PSD conditioner will remain an indelible stain and a holy mess.
If only for this, Nicușor Dan no longer deserves to consider the possibility of a second term; Moreover, he should seriously think about withdrawing from public life altogether after his first term ends.
Romania is, however, a country that is far too fragile, not only economically, but also democratically, for people with such high positions in the state to play with the extremist dragon in this way.
Following the president’s two nominations, Eugen Tomac and especially Adrian Vestea, there is now a chance for the president to make a rational decision for the next inhabitant of Victoria Palace (the government offices).
After almost two months of chaos, which echoed in Europe, from June 23, the president can put on the table precisely the government options that were already available and viable since May 5: a minority cabinet around PSD or minority cabinet around PNL-USR. On May 5, along with the PSD, it was easier to bring the UDMR. On June 23, given the developments, it is easier to imagine UDMR alongside PNL and USR.
Moreover, the ability of Bolojan to impose itself in front of the head of state, the PSD and his own party, despite the assault it had been subjected to non-stop for almost 50 days, resulted in a framework in which a government without a majority in Parliament could evolve relatively stable.
The Pact for Romania, proposed by the PNL leader to the other parties, is valid regardless of the color that an eventual minority cabinet will have, and is an expression of obvious political intelligence. It is the optimal response to an urgent need for political stability at least for the major economic and strategic files – and it is also the common sense solution for the president who’s a mathematician (given the fragmentation in Parliament, an effect of the December 2024 canceled presidential elections).
From many points of view, President Dan’s first option would be to nominate Sorin Grindeanu (PSD leader) as Prime Minister, because the PSD is the largest party in the current Parliament. But above all, because – as shown at least in the last few weeks – it is more certain that PNL and USR will honor, from the opposition, the pact proposed by Bolojan, than that PSD would stay on the opposition benches until the next election.
PSD is currently the party that is most lacking in credibility (perhaps also the pro-PSD wing in the PNL). The fear that what the PSD promises really doesn’t matter anymore is now legitimate and healthy, no matter how many agreements it signs.
The paradox today is that Romania could be safer with the PSD, alone and in the minority, at the Victoria Palace, than with a PSD diluted in a governing coalition or with a PSD left in opposition.
- Governance means constraints – especially in the situation in which the country’s economy and budget find themselves today. And room for maneuver becomes even tighter after the stinging failure of the PSD after the motion.
- Loneliness requires total responsibility.
- And the dependence on the goodwill of the opposition is the harness that will rationalize the freedom of movement of the PSD with the country’s resources.
More than a month and a half of political crisis has demonstrated a truth that was floating in the air anyway: Sorin Grindeanu’s ‘political genius’ is about the same as the embarrassing low figures the PSD leader has in the polls.
