PNL copies the PSD recipe regarding the secrecy of contracts with the press. Where is the deep reform promised by Bolojan and Ciucu?

Ilie Bolojan and Ciprian Ciucu promised that they will reform PNL deeply, that the Liberals will go to a modern line in which transparency plays a central role. Unfortunately, after six months, we find that they have secreted all the contracts of the party with the press. A toxic model copied from the PSD, the only party that constantly violates the law on information of public interest. If these parties, always in government, do not want to reveal what they do with public money, why should they continue to collect hundreds of millions of lei?

Do you know what was the last important answer provided by PNL to a request for spending public money? It was the one in the summer of 2024, when Nicolae Ciuca agreed to present the public as they cost the unwritten book: 2.5 million euros.

The information was published by SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.ro investigative site, and the company was able to find out the huge cost paid by PNL to promote a book and a presidential candidate. Maybe some think it was easy, I guarantee that it was not.

Do not think that Nicolae Ciuca or Lucian Bode wanted to provide the information immediately, it was a wear fight for almost three months. However, I insist that the answers to the requests regarding the information of public interest are not a journalistic moft, but represent normality.

Journalists have the right to resort to this legitimate approach to force the parties to respect the law, to be transparent in the spending of public money. For example, Ludovic Orban or Florin Cîțu agreed with the presentation of the amounts for the press contracts.

The team Ilie Bolojan, Ciprian Ciucu, Adrian Veștea installed in front of PNL immediately after Nicolae Ciuca ranked 5th in the presidential elections. They promised reform, credibility, a modern line, transparency.

The first attempt to obtain an answer regarding the PNL contracts with the press I immediately had the change of management.

Months of waiting

The response received from the Bolojan-Ciucu team on January 8, 2025: We cannot respond to the information of public interest, because the party has concluded the contracts with privacy clauses.

The PNL thus invokes privacy clauses although money is public, an anomaly brought to the fore to justify the lack of transparency. Unofficially, I am told to have patience, that the new leadership has just come in the modal and has more important themes such as the formation of the government and the budget.

I'm waiting for a few months.

I note that Ilie Bolojan acts totally differently at the Cotroceni Palace, where he reaches the resignation of Klaus Iohannis, February 2025. You remember that the former president had secreted all the contracts regarding the rent of private aircraft. Klaus Iohannis invoked in his support a law that did not allow him to provide the information. There was pressure from the society, to which Ilie Bolojan responded without problems.

On March 18, 2025, each paying citizen or not taxes and taxes could find out how much the trips of Klaus Iohannis, piece by piece. All the arguments that had been invoked until then have proved only a smoke curtain to secrete information of public interest.

The merit belongs to Ilie Bolojan.

The interim president ends his role in Cotroceni on May 22 when Nicușor Dan is validated as president. Ilie Bolojan returns to the PNL to continue the reform he promised. He had demonstrated in his short term as interim that transparency plays a key role in gaining credibility.

Without entering into details, I mention that I had three or four direct discussions with Ilie Bolojan in the last six months, in which I asked the party to completely respond and within the legal term to the requests for public interest. He has never challenged this right of the company to find out what politicians do with the money from the budget.

Listened and seemed to be the law.

PNL votes not to fall within the legal term

Instead of respecting the law, the party sank, however, was even more in the direction of its violation. The PNL National Permanent Bureau votes in April not to submit within the legal term, April 30, the report of revenues and expenses for 2024. A new violation of the law, held from the highest level, a unique fact in the history of the party.

The justification offered: the party ordered a financial audit, and the two documents must be corroborated.

Until July 2, 2025, on the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority, the PNL did not submit the income and expense report, although the audit is completed and has been in Ilie Bolojan's office for several weeks. Few leaders know certain parts of it, the PNL leader informs him that the debts are very large and other amounts are to be paid. An applied discussion is announced for next week.

The Snoop.ro investigative site presented in the material “PNL postponed” that the debts of the Liberals to a single supplier, AMMA Print, are over 25 million euros, and another seven million euros must reach RAAPPS to pay the premises. Also, several sites and televisions have complained to the party that it did not pay the debts of 2024.

On June 2, 2025, I sent a new request to the PNL for the contracts with the press for the election year 2024, but also the current year.

The answer received contains zero information and is almost identical to those received from the PSD in recent years. As a mention, under the leadership of Marcel Ciolacu, but also of Sorin Grindeanu, so far, the Social Democrats have refused to provide any concrete information on where public money has arrived. Marcel Ciolacu was the first political leader to block any access to contracts concluded from public money. About this topic I wrote in the opinion: “The toxic money is not cut”

Copy after PSD

PNL copied under the team Bolojan-Ciucu the toxic model used PSD.

President Ilie Bolojan could in Cotroceni descend the contracts, but it seems that a terrible force stops him from doing the same thing in the modal.

“Regarding the final beneficiaries of the amounts spent in the promotion campaigns, we inform you that the National Liberal Party respects the commercial contracts in force, which include confidentiality clauses assumed by both parties. Accordingly, we cannot provide details that exceed the legal or contractual framework”, is the answer received from the PNL 2025.

Basically, PNL transmits that it never intends to provide the requested information. If they were looking at the court portal, the PNL leadership could find out how the judges send them that they have the obligation to provide all the requested information, that the public money benefits from the principle of transparency.

On Facebook, Ciprian Ciucu, first interim vice-president of the PNL, launches a version that contradicts the official answer: “Nothing is secreted.” He does it to calm the commentators who asked him if the party hides the money paid to the press.

Under these conditions, Mr. Ciucu, if nothing is secreted, present the PNL contracts with the press in 2024 and 2025! Entity with entity, amount with sum, total transparency, zero secretion. You have decision -making power, take attitude and provide the requested answers. If you cannot, give up the function you hold at the PNL peak.

I am afraid that Mr. Ciucu is just a politician who writes on Facebook some stories that are not related to reality. He is not the only one, he will not be the last to do this without having any remorse.

The essential question remains: what do we do with the parties that refuse to respect the law, to submit publicly the contracts concluded from public money? Do we tolerate their lies and lack of transparency, do we continue to credit them with other and hundreds of millions of lei from the budget?

Ilie Bolojan gave up, after a lot of public pressure, and promised that he would also cut from the subsidy for political parties. However, cutting the subsidy without transparency is only another deceit.

But if the ruling parties, PSD and PNL, will not present all the data, would it be too much for the citizens to ask no more political formations that knowingly violate the law?

Transparency and the law are not negotiated. Applies. Including the parties of Mr. Bolojan, Ciucu or Grindeanu. The great reformers earn their credibility by starting with them everything, that they become an example. To always ask others to respect the law while you violate it is called hypocrisy.