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MEPs Ramona Strugariu, Dragoș Pîslaru, Alin Mituța, Dragoș Tudorache and Dacian Cioloș resigned today as members of the Save Romania Union party, a press release informs.
“Unfortunately, the current USR leadership has gradually distanced itself from the party, and also from the values and promises with which we, MEPs elected on the USR PLUS 2020 Alliance list, demanded and obtained the vote of 2 million Romanian citizens in the 2019 election campaign. We see in the USR leadership neither the desire nor the maturity to accept the mistakes of the past and to change a direction that leads the party to political irrelevance. We no longer guarantee the refusal to attract and promote skills (people and ideas) and to develop the organization. We see a small circle of members consolidating their internal power through political means inconsistent with our values and those of the reformist electorate in Romania. This electorate is waiting for answers “, the 5 MEPs stated in a joint statement.
At the same time, the five MEPs have launched today the REPER party, a new political initiative for dialogue and interaction with society and the business community, bringing together human resources and solutions to current crises and challenges in Romanian society: cost and quality life, energy and food security, the rule of law and respect for justice, climate and digital transformation. The five MEPs remain affiliated with the European Parliament’s Renew Europe group.
“A political project has the duty to remain constantly open to society and the business environment, to seek solutions, to respond to the need to coagulate people and resources for the professional preparation of a government for 2024. We understand the dissatisfaction of our supporters, we see that the PNL-PSD government is not a solution and that there is no real alternative in the current opposition parties. We have the responsibility to create this alternative and we have decided to set up the REPER party, which we will build together with those who will join this initiative“, the press release further reads.
In a separate Facebook post, Dacian Cioloș explained that the separation from the party leaves him with “a bitter taste and a huge amount of sadness” and brings harsh criticism to his former party colleagues. Cioloș claims that he did not want to be the president of USR PLUS at all costs and sought a reasonable, negotiated political solution that would affect the party’s camps as little as possible, but that he did not find an agreement.
The former USR president also claims that he tried to build a bridge between the party’s artificial camps, but that “it is impossible to negotiate with someone who has forgotten that he is among friends and sees only enemies around him”.
Dacian Cioloș also accuses that for his former colleagues in the party leadership “the symbolic revenge of erasing part of the party’s name from revenge was more important” than to build together and “lived a long series of disappointments caused by the enormous fear that some among my colleagues they have it compared to the political disappearance “.
USR interim leader Drula: Romania doesn’t need pride and vanity
The interim leader of USR, Cătălin Drulă, reacted after the resignation of Dacian Cioloș and four MEPs from the party, saying that this gesture is politically incomprehensible and that Romania does not need political individual projects, pride and vanity.
Drula also stated that the departure of Dacian Ciolos violates a promise made to Romanians in the last 3 years and reminds the former USR leader of the party slogan of 2019, “which so many colleagues from USR and PLUS respect every day through their work in this unique project” .
“I confess that this gesture is politically incomprehensible. We are at a critical moment for Romania. USR is the Democratic Opposition, the one that fights for the modernization of Romania with the colossus of the PSD-PNL system. Only breaking and fragmentation is not needed when there is so much work in the fight that matters (…) Politics, as I understand it, is a daily struggle, a long marathon and, above all, a team game.”
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