Unification of small Romanian opposition parties USR, PLUS faces obstacles

The unification of Save Romania Union (USR), a party that has representatives in the Parliament, with thenewly-established PLUS party of former EU Commissioner and Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, came at risk after a scandal related to the collaborators of the later, local Adevarul reported. Namely, the young lawyers having prepared the PLUS party for Ciolos were acting on the behalf of an officer of the former communist services (Securitate) turned into lawyer after the fall of communism. Ciolos’ relaxed comments on this further stirred negative reactions among USR members. Thus, 46% of the 200 USR member polled in an ad-hoc event rejected the idea of joining forces into an alliance with PLUS. Mediafax reports on the loss of popularity in social media faced by Ciolos, after he played down the importance of the origin of those who set up the party for him furthermore implying that anybody in Romania has a weaker or stronger connection with the former Securitate. Romanian opposition party members choose candidates for EU Parliament elections Romania’s former technocrat PM Dacian Ciolos will run in the next EP elections editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Facebook / Dacian Ciolos)