Leader of Romania’s reformist party USR, Dominic Fritz, criticised Liberal party (PNL) for the vote on the Integrity Agency (ANI) Law – which strips him of Timisoara mayoral seat – and said his party’s alliance with PNL is circumstantial, a coalition of two reasonable centrist parties aimed at opposing both the far-right extremism (AUR) and a Social Democratic party (PSD) that lost his moral compass. 

Asked if he would continue working with Liberals’ leader Ilie Bolojan [along their plans for a centre-right electoral alliance], Fritz replied that “this is the idea”, but also said that not every decision of the PNL is correct, Digi24 reported. For instance, he said, the Liberals’ vote for the ANI Law “was a mistake,” because the rule of law is priceless, and he does not believe that the European Commission will reimburse the EUR 770 million if Romania seriously violates European legislation, not just the Constitution, he emphasised.

At the same time, Fritz blamed the Social Democrats (PSD) for undermining the negotiations for the Wage Law for the budgetary sector that would have brought the country a EUR 770 million grant under the Recovery and Resilience facility (RRF).  

The accusation, consistent with the public position of the Social Democrat leaders, comes against a Presidency statement. President Nicusor Dan, declaring the mediation on the Wage Law officially failed, said that all the centrist parties take equal responsibility for the failure and for the EUR 770 million RRF grant lost. The USR leader specifically stressed that the president assigning equal responsibility to all parties “does no good.”

"Once again, the USR would have voted for this law, which is precisely why I don't know if this equidistance, so to speak, helps us. (..) I think we need to state very clearly that PSD, first of all, did not want to pass this law, because they did not want to assume that we cannot satisfy everyone's desires at the same time. (..) PSD did not want to tell the truth to its own voters and say that there is a limit. And that is why, for years, they have been delaying this project," he mentioned, according to the source.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Virgil Simonescu)