Former PM says his party won’t merge with Save Romania Union

Romania’s former technocrat prime minister Dacian Ciolos, the founder of the Romania Together Movement (Romania Impreuna or RO+), said on Sunday, October 21, that his party will not merge with Save Romania Union (USR), the second-biggest opposition party by number of seats in the Parliament. Ciolos had a meeting with USR president Dan Barna on Sunday and said he and Barna meet frequently. He added that RO+ and USR may cooperate for next year’s euro-parliamentary elections but a merger is out of the question. “The two parties have many things in common but are also complementary in some ways. We (RO+) also have a different voter segment that we address. Our party seems to have some success in rural areas and we want to build on that,” Ciolos explained. USR leader Dan Barna also said he talked to Ciolos about possible joint lists in the elections for the European Parliament. He added that some 70-75% of his party’s supporters would support an alliance with the former PM’s party. USR, a party that launched in Bucharest after the 2016 local elections, is perceived as a party representing urbanites with liberal views. Some USR members approached Ciolos after the parliamentary elections in December 2016 to join the party and take a leading role, but the party’s founder Nicusor Dan opposed this move. Nicusor Dan was later removed from the party’s helm and left USR. Dan Barna, who was elected president of USR in October 2017, was a state secretary in the Dacian Ciolos cabinet. Former PM gathers signatures to simplify voting procedure for Romanians abroad editor@romania-insider.com