Former president Traian Basescu’s party, the People's Movement Party (PMP), will merge with the National Union for Romania's Progress (UNPR), the party led until March by the former Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea, Basescu announced yesterday.

Valeriu Steriu, the current UNPR president, will be the executive president of the newly created party which will be called PMP. The negotiation process took two weeks and the political merger was unanimously approved by the two parties, Basescu added.

Oprea, who was the most powerful minister in former Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s cabinet, has recently announced that he would leave his party and withdraw from politics after he completes his MP term. The former minister is under investigation in two criminal cases, in which he is charged with abuse of power. In March, he stepped down as president of the National Union for Romania’s Progress - UNPR.

Gabriel Oprea will not be a member of the newly created party, Basescu said.

UNPR was formed in March 2012 by a group of MPs who left the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) to support former President Traian Basescu.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Traian Basescu on Facebook)