The mayor of Brasov, Allen Coliban (USR), accused on Sunday a local leader of the National Liberal Youth (TNL), Bogdan Pintilie, that he made, in a post on Facebook, threats against the deputy mayor Flavia Boghiu. The new incident between the two parties, which comes after the case from the USR councilwoman Mogoșoaia, was sanctioned by the leaders of PNL and USR, Florin Cîțu and Dacian Cioloș, who condemned the violence in politics, be it only suggested or in speech. The PNL chairman also asked the organization in Brasov to exclude Bogdan Pintilie from the party, with Pintilie announcing on Sunday evening that he was resigning from the party.
After Bogdan Pintilie initially announced that he was resigning, “until the situation is clarified”, following Florin Cîțu’s request that the local organization expels him from the party, the young politician returned, edited his post on Facebook, and announced that he resigned from the PNL.
“In a public post, a leader of the Liberal Youth threatens a woman with a beating. (…) Corruption, violence and unacceptably much nonsense. These are the ‘qualifications’ of the old political class, against which I expected the whole current political class to fight. It’s awful to see young liberals having mafia-like defects. There are some limits. Or at least it should be. I hope that the PNL will urgently dismiss the leader of the Liberal Youth from Brasov “, Allen Coliban wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“We will file a criminal complaint. No, you don’t have to like the way we, the USR, run the city. I’m sure we can do better, and criticism helps us move forward. But this kind of aggressive aggression has nothing to do with society, much less in politics. Not here, in Brasov, and nowhere else“, Coliban also wrote.
The post on the account of the liberal Bogdan Pintilie referred to by the Brasov mayor also includes a fake photo in which the deputy mayor Flavia Boghiu has a bruised eye. Although writing that “this post is a pamphlet”, Pintilie commented the fake photo: “Pink suits her well all around”, referring both to her hair and fake bruise.
Bogdan Pintilie explained on his Facebook account that he used a photo taken “from a journalist (s) in Brasov”, but the accompanying text belongs to him, it was a joke, a pamphlet, and has nothing to do with domestic violence, physical aggression ”. “Anyone can tell you anything about me, but they can’t say I’m a violent person, or that I would promote or support violence in any way. People ‘bothered’ by my posts, let me unfollow, no loss. If Flavia Boghiu was disturbed by my post, I apologize publicly and in the future I will take care to wear gloves, I would not want to be enemies, especially since in Brasov USR and PNL are in alliance”, wrote Bogdan Pintilie.
Later on, as the case escalated, Bogdan Pintilie returned with a new post, in which he publicly apologized and announced his resignation from any position in the PNL until the situation was clarified: “I publicly apologize to Mrs. Flavia Boghiu for yesterday’s post, a post I deleted, also yesterday. I also apologize to all the ladies who have been victims of violence of any kind and who have seen my post. Although the picture does not belong to me and I wrote in the text of the post that it is a pamphlet, I regret that it was misinterpreted and that I touched on such a sensitive subject, which many women face. Since the subject was politically exploited, I decided to resign from any position in the PNL, until this situation is clarified. Best regards“.
However, the PNL’s youth organization, the National Liberal Youth, delimited itself “completely” from Bogdan Pintilie’s behavior and “firmly” condemned any act of violence or instigation of violence.
USR chairman Dacian Ciolos warned that “the trivialization of violence and increased aggression in Romanian politics will soon translate into acts of aggression” and called on the PNL leadership to “take extraordinary and swift action” in the Brasov case.
In his turn, the president of PNL, Florin Cîţu, stated that he will not tolerate any form of incitement to violence and announced that the organization from Brasov will deal with the exclusion of the PNL representative who had such a “slip”.