Romanian PM Ciuca wins single-candidate elections for Liberal Party top seat

Romania’s Liberal Party (PNL) elected on April 10 its president during perhaps the most expedited congress and certainly the first single-candidate internal elections held by a major political party in the country in three decades.

His predecessor Florin Citu, elected during a much more dramatic ballot last September, was replaced simply because “there’s always room for improvement,” as interim PNL president Gheorghe Flutur put it.

The improvement, in this case, is a closer cooperation with the Social Democrats - something Florin Citu was not ready to accept easily. Although he followed up to a point the policies inspired by President Iohannis, Citu never really accepted the grand political coalition with the Social Democrats forged by Iohannis.

The single candidate in the Liberals’ internal elections on April 10, prime minister and retired general Nicolae Ciuca, received 1,060 out of 1,120 votes expressed - with 60 votes being invalidated, G4media.ro reported.

“I am not a senior member of the party, I have no political experience, and I do not pretend to be one - but I will never be a prisoner,” Ciuca said in the speech held at the congress.

He pledged for harmony and peace - within the party or the ruling coalition, it was not clear.

Like his predecessor Florin Citu, Nicolae Ciuca has not developed a career as a politician. But he was the first option of President Klaus Iohannis several times already - including in December 2020 after the general elections. At that time, however, appointing a general with no political experience at the top of the Government was not an option.

After a major political crisis triggered and sustained by President Klaus Iohannis, Ciuca became a more acceptable candidate for the PM seat one year later. And now, the sole candidate for the Liberals’ top seat.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)