Leader of reformist Romanian party USR resigns

MEP Dacian Cioloș, a former prime minister (2015-2017) and EU Commissioner for Agriculture (2010-2014), has resigned after only four months from the top position he held in the Romanian reformist party USR, Hotnews.ro reported.

This may prompt a significant change in USR's positioning, with a more liberal (center-right) orientation as implied by acting party head Catalin Drulă who blamed Cioloș for his center-left orientation.

The party, which resulted from the merger of USR and PLUS - an ad-hoc political vehicle of Dacian Cioloș suspected of controversial ties with the intelligence services, failed so far to harmonize internally.

The tensions increased after the party was ousted from the center-right coalition by President Klaus Iohannis last autumn.

Cioloș resigned after the party's leading body, controlled by his rival Dan Barna, rejected a set of reforms proposed by the party leader.

Among other things, the reforms proposed were aimed at weakening the power accumulated by the party leading body (Biroul National) headed by his rival Dan Barna.

The party's vice-president, Catalin Drulă, a close ally of Barna, took over as acting party head until an extraordinary congress is organized.

The National Bureau rejected Cioloș's proposed reforms with 14 votes against and 11 in favor.

Cioloș refused to negotiate the provisions in the program that generated major tensions in the party, including the ones regarding the establishment of a commission of experts (including members from outside the party) to propose members of a Shadow Government, the dismissal of the general secretary of the party, the ban on expelling party members based on their opinions expressed publicly.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)