Reformist opposition party USR aims to create alternative coalition for 2024

Cătălin Drulă, president of the reformist opposition party Save Romania Union (USR), recently stated in an interview with Presshub.ro that it is his party’s intention to create an alternative to the ruling coalition by joining with “compatible forces,” such as liberal defectors Forța Dreptei (Force of the Right).

"The democratic opposition in Romania almost entirely means USR. If you look at the size of the Parliament, the 14-15% that USR has makes it the largest opposition party. There is another party that is not in power, but it is an extremist party,” said Drulă.

He also stated that USR currently has mayors governing over 1.7 million people in Romania, in large, medium, or small cities.

In addition, the USR head argued that the governing Social Democrats aim to help George Simion, the leader of the ultra-nationalist party AUR, to rise in the polls because he would be an easy opponent.

"AUR is a piece of PSD. If you remember, PSD took over PRM. Currently, PSD has an interest - except for the moments when Marcel Ciolacu discovers that the Delta is sacred, PSD being a party that has plundered and destroyed the Delta over the years - to leave this PRM-type discourse to George Simion, whom they are boosting and want to boost in polls for a predictable Iliescu-Vadim scenario,” Drulă said.

Back in the 2000 presidential elections, Romanian voters were presented with a choice between PSD leader Ion Iliescu, and xenophobic nationalist figure Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Iliescu easily won the presidential elections at the time, gathering nearly 67% of the votes. "This Iliescu-Vadim scheme, repeated with Ciolacu and Simion, will fail," the USR head said.

CătălinDrulă also criticized president Klaus Iohannis, calling him a "traitor" to the reformist cause for bringing PSD back in power after the alliance between the liberals and USR broke down in early 2021. He argued that the president rarely appears before Romanian citizens anymore and that he’s a minor figure in foreign politics.

“We see, for example, Maia Sandu, who is in absolutely every place that matters - in Davos, in Munich, in Warsaw, where she is praised by the leaders of the free world, while we know nothing about president Iohannis," the USR leader said.

(Photo source: Catalin Drula on Facebook)