Romania's Liberal leader Ciucă comes up with "right-wing" bloc idea
<p>Romania's Liberal leader Nicolae Ciucă (PNL), whose presidential candidacy may undermine his party's lucrative collaboration with the Social Democrats (PSD), reportedly came up with the idea of a "right-wing" bloc that would back in his presidential bid.</p>

<p>"We are continuing the negotiations this week with the right-wing parties. The right-wing bloc is possible with joint lists [for the parliamentary elections] to include the Popular Movement Party (PMP), Right Force Party, and REPER [besides PNL]. We can negotiate with USR for the second round [of the presidential elections] to support us," Ciucă said, according to sources close to the PNL leadership quoted by Aktual24.</p>

<p>The strategy, not yet announced officially by the Liberals and visibly not yet refined, seems more of a bargaining one, aimed at strengthening PNL's position in the coalition with the Social Democrats or a plan to create confusion among the right-wing parties.</p>

<p>Notably, the main right-wing party, USR, is not among the potential partners envisaged by Ciucă – at least not in the first stage. This is mainly because of the USR leader Elena Lasconi, Ciucă's rival in the presidential elections.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The newly elected USR president Lasconi is running for president against Ciucă and she recently criticised harshly the Liberals for their alliance with the Social Democrats.</p>

<p>"The PNL should do a little cleaning and sanitization [within their party] because now they cannot separate themselves from the Social Democrats (PSD). But I know that in the Liberal Party, there are people who know that this is not the right way, neither for them nor the country," Lasconi said a couple of weeks ago.</p>

<p>"With all due respect to you, I think it's already too much. Ciucă was disturbed by what Lasconi said about him. These days, we don't talk to anyone from the USR until they have a minimum of respect," sources within PNL said.</p>

<p>A right-wing bloc formed by Liberals with only small right-wing satellite parties [not including USR] would not be a genuine right-wing bloc.</p>

<p>Even assuming Liberals would eventually strike a deal with the USR, this might not be enough to create a ruling coalition, only a political crisis at most. In Parliament, the Social Democrats, even if backed by the ethnic Hungarian party and other independent MPs, might not be able to form a majority.&nbsp;</p>

<p>But this might be exactly what Nicolae Ciucă, whose electoral posters can be seen across the entire country, aims for.</p>

<p>However, the Social Democrats seem confident in their strong position both in the parliamentary and presidential ballots, and the gains Ciucă may derive from such a strategy are rather marginal.</p>

<p><em>(Photo: Gov.ro)</em></p>

<p><em>iulian@romania-insider.com</em></p>