In a party meeting on Monday evening, several USR leaders have asked chairman Dan Barna to step down after he had failed to enter the presidential election runoff.
In his turn, Barna called on the party members to vote if they want him to resign or not in an upcoming consultation. “This meeting will take place with my resignation on the table“, Barna said, according to Digi24.
USR chair would intend to ask for an internal online vote where party members should decide if he stays at the helm of the party or not.
Such leaders as Cosette Chichirau, Tudor Benga or Cristin Ghica asked Barna to resign on Monday evening, blaming him and his campaign staff for the electoral strategy that, they argue, led the USR-PLUS candidate to a lower score than the one obtained by the alliance at the EP elections in May.
In retort, Dan Barna defended himself an argued that it is the party that should decide if he has to resign or not.
“I repeat, I assume the result. I decided to ask for a confirmation of the confidence of the USR members in the upcoming period. We’ll consult all members online. This consultations takes place with my resignation on the table. We’ll decide together as always, like a democratic party if and how we’ll move on. We have the local elections ahead, we have to prepare the local elections, our marathon to change Romania will go on anyway. The USR members will decide if I a the right person to remain the leader of this team or if I remain just a platoon member and we hold internal elections again,”Barna said.