Rupture in USR. Chair Ciolos threatens with resignation, at war with ex-chief Barna

The recent turmoil in the USR exploded on Thursday evening, in a meeting of the National Bureau where chairman Dacian Cioloș threatened to resign if the party did not agree with its proposed political program in the meeting. The former USR chair Dan Barna accused him of wanting the party as an account “per physical person” and that “it can’t go that way.”

The rupture inside USR is related to the struggle for power, given that the party’s governing body is controlled by “Team Barna” after last year’s elections.

In Thursday night’s meeting, Dacian Cioloș proposed to the National Bureau a program for the period 2022-2024 which includes a series of internal reforms including changing the status, replacing the Secretary General and appointing him through competition, diminishing the power of the National Bureau by outsourcing decisions and by stopping exclusions on the grounds of “crime of opinion”.

“I will ask for the vote of my colleagues from BN on this program in Monday’s meeting. It is a plan with actions of external strategy, but also with measures of internal coherence, all with proposals and clear deadlines for implementation“, Cioloș told the USR leaders.

Sources from the party told Digi24.ro that Cioloș’s program was sent to the management at the time when the meeting was to start, and in the meeting Cioloș said that he would resign if his program was not accepted.

Regarding the reforms proposed by Cioloș, Dan Barna sais, in an internal message, that they intend to move the party’s decision outside the statutory governing forum, while accusing the USR president that he is “bothered” by the majority.

“Our post-merger elections have brought us to the position where you won the presidency. I recognized the fair result. At the same time, you did not like the election results for the National Bureau. I also found out from the press that most of them bother you. I blamed this on the accommodation period. But tonight I found out that, in your opinion, nothing works, that everything needs to change. You propose that the party be run from the outside. Committees and commissions that organize the party, that make appointments. Who exactly? We do not know. Basically, you propose to empty the meaning of USR and replace it with committees and committees “, wrote Barna, in an internal message.

Barna warned Cioloș that people have chosen him to collaborate. “It doesn’t work like that, when it doesn’t suit you, you reinvent the party. Outside the statute, outside the democracy. You invent in your program, which you put in front of us with an ultimatum, non-problems. You tell us dryly and arrogantly: vote or leave,” said the former USR president.

On the other hand, Cioloș denounced  the small internal struggles and “lacking political maturity”.

Dacian Cioloș immediately replied on the same internal forum to Dan Barna, whom he accuses of not coming up with solutions, of not reading his document, but of going out to criticize him on TV and of excluding from the party those who are not I agree with him.

“The party is suffering and we are arguing with each other. I proposed solutions and you replied with a nervous breakdown, without giving 24 hours to the proposed document. You ask for my consent and you offer me to go out on TV. It is difficult for me to understand what you are proposing to the party apart from excluding those who are not with you,” the USR chief accuses.