PSD enters the Grindeanu era. Which leaders are close to the “new chapter” of the social democrats / Five first vice-presidents instead of two

PSD elects its new leadership today, November 7, and Sorin Grindeanu is the only candidate for party leadership. He became interim president of the PSD after Marcel Ciolacu resigned on May 20.

“United for Romanians. Strong, only together”, that's the name of the political program that Sorin Grindeanu and his team are proposing to the social democrats at the congress that takes place on Friday.

Grindeanu, who is also the only candidate for the leadership of the party, says, in a post on Facebook, that with the election of the new leadership, “a new chapter for the Social Democratic Party and for Romania” will begin.

He mentions that the new beginning is based on responsibility, unity and solutions for Romanians and that from today, PSD begins “recognizing its own path”.

Adrian Năstase, Mircea Geoană, Victor Ponta and Marcel Ciolacu – four of the former PSD presidents – will participate in the congress that starts at 1:00 p.m.

Sorin Grindeanu did not invite Liviu Dragnea, however.

“I didn't invite him. It's my right to invite or not the former presidents. I told you who I spoke with. Liviu Dragnea, from the statements I saw given by his lordship, still has certain restrictions to participate,” Grindeanu explained.

Grindeanu became prime minister at Dragnea's proposal

The rise of Sorin Grindeanu in big politics is, however, linked to Dragnea's name. The current interim president of the PSD started his political career in the youth of the PDSR in Timiș. Then, he held several positions at the local level, such as deputy mayor of Timișoara or president of PSD Timiș. In 2012 he became a deputy, and from 2014 to 2015 he was Minister of Communications in the Government of Ponta.

On December 30, 2016, he was appointed prime minister, at the proposal of Liviu Dragnea, who led PSD at the time. Shortly after being installed at the Victoria Palace, Grindeanu and his cabinet quickly moved forward the GEO drafts for the pardon and amnesty of some criminal acts (the famous GEO 13).

On February 1, 2017, the biggest street movements since the Revolution began. Protests with hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in Bucharest and throughout the country. On February 5, under public and political pressure from all sides, Grindeanu took a step back and repealed the ordinance, but also on that day the largest of the protests took place: half a million people in the streets, of which over 250,000 in Piața Victoriei in the Capital.

Grindeanu soon came to blows with Liviu Dragnea. Immediately after, both PSD and Grindeanu entered history once again – as the first party to remove its own prime minister through a motion of no confidence.

After leaving the Government, for three years, until October 2020, Grindeanu was president of ANCOM, where he had an average net monthly income of over 44,000 lei. Then, in 2021, he was proposed as Minister of Transport in the Ciucă Government. He kept the same portfolio in the two offices then led by Marcel Ciolacu.

Now, he is the president of the Chamber of Deputies and the president with full powers of the PSD is to be voted.

The Vasilescu-Manda family, in key positions

To lead the party, Sorin Grindeanu chose 26 social democrats from all regions of the country, from ministers to MEPs, presidents of County Councils or mayors.

MEP Claudio Manda and the mayor of Craiova Lia Olguța Vasilescuwho together lead PSD Dolj, one of the party's strongest branches, remain at the top of the party. Sorin Grindeanu even chose Manda for the second most important position in the party – that of general secretary. The position was held by Paul Stănescu for 6 years, from 2019 until now. Manda is currently the vice-president of the PSD.

Lia Olguța Vasilescu leads the Association of Municipalities in Romania, so she is implicitly part of the party's leadership, according to the statute. It became more present in Bucharest with the arrival of Grindeanu to the interim leadership of the party.

The Vasilescu-Manda couple was, in turn, close to Liviu Dragnea, who also attended the wedding of the two, from 2019.

Lia Olguța Vasilescu and Claudiu Manda supported Dragnea even when, in 2018, several PSD leaders asked him to withdraw through an internal letter. The letter was signed by Gabriela Firea, Paul Stănescu, Adrian Țuțuianu, Marian Neacșu and Ion Mocioalcă, who were also then at the helm of the party. In fact, the movement was supported by several members of the formation, including Marcel Ciolacu and Daniel Băluță.

A part of them had remained with Dragnea – among the PSD members who supported Dragnea at that time were Doina Federovici (Botoșani), Dragos Benea (Bacău), Adrian Gâdea (Teleorman), who will become PSD vice-presidents after the congress, together with Claudiu Manda.

A few months after the wedding of the leaders of the Dolj branch, Dragnea was imprisoned, and Lia Olguța Vasilescu and Claudiu Manda approached Marcel Ciolacu.

Because Sorin Grindeanu wants to bring to the leadership of the party representatives of as many branches as possible, he created three new positions of first vice-presidents. Their number will thus reach, in total, 5, instead of 2.

The first such post will be filled by Bogdan Ivan. He comes from Bistrița, where he was an adviser to Emil Radu Moldovan, the president of CJ Bistrița, one of the influential leaders in the party. In 2020 he was elected deputy. Then, in 2023, he became the youngest minister in the first Ciolacu Government, where he received the Digitalization portfolio. In 2024, in the second cabinet led by Ciolacu, he took over the Ministry of Economy, and now in the Bolojan Government he is the Minister of Energy.

The second first vice president is Victor Negrescu. In his third term as a member of the European Parliament, Negrescu became vice-president of the European Parliament and was the chief negotiator of the EU budget for 2025.

Marius Oprescu he is the head of CJ Olt, fiefdom of the PSD, but also the president of the party branch in the county and will become the third first vice-president of the social democrats. PSD Olt was led for 10 years by Paul Stănescu, with whom Oprescu is close.

In 2017, Marius Oprescu was acquitted by the magistrates of the Slatina Court in a case in which he was sent to court for manslaughter, following a road accident in which he was involved in the fall of 2013. At that time, the lawyer of the family of the man who died in the accident said that Oprescu tried to cover up the case.

The Mayor of Galatia, Ionut Pucheanuremains in charge of the party, but this time as first vice-president, not vice-president as he was until now.

The fifth position of first vice-president will be filled by Corneliu Stefanthe president of the Dâmbovița County Council.

Grindeanu brings the leaders from the territory to Bucharest

The Social Democratic Party also has vice-presidents in leadership who are divided either by domains or by regions. Sorin Grindeanu increased their number as well. Specifically, it added four new positions. Instead of 16, there are now 20.

Daniel Baluta will demote to the position of vice president. When Marcel Ciolacu was president of the party, Băluță and Grindeanu were first vice-presidents. In exchange, Băluță received the interim leadership of the PSD Bucharest branch, after it was handed over to him by Gabriela Firea. Also, the current mayor of Sector 4 received the support of the party to enter the race for the mayor of the Capital.

Another post of vice president will be filled by Gheorghe Carciu. He became an MEP following the 2024 MEP elections. According to Digi24.ro, he is one of the five Romanian MEPs who have the most absences.

In the Government led by Nicolae Ciucă, Cârciu was appointed secretary of state of the Department of Romanians Everywhere and was also in charge of PSD Diaspora.

He is supported by Paul Stănescu, one of the influential leaders of the party, who has now taken a step back. In a text published in Free Europe in 2022, journalist Cristian Andrei, now at Snoop.ro, reported how at a coastal meeting of social democrats, which took place shortly after his appointment to the PSD Diaspora, Gheorghe Cârciu “metamorphosed into “Stănescu's waiter” as several PSD MPs present at the event noted”.

Paul Stănescu and Emil Radu Moldovan are not the only important leaders of the PSD to take a step back. Marian Neacșu, who until now was vice-president of the party, gives up his place to his close friend Silvia Mihalcea.

And Gabriela Firea he received a position of vice president. After she was involved in the scandal of the horror asylums in Voluntari and Afumați in 2023, Gabriela Firea's relations with former PSD head Marcel Ciolacu cooled. She resigned from the position of Minister of the Family that she held at the time. In 2024, in the local elections, PSD and PNL initially chose a common candidate – the doctor Cătălin Cîrstoiu. After he was withdrawn from the race, Firea became the PSD candidate.

Until 2024, Gabriela Firea had been the first vice-president of the PSD, but she gave up the position after several negotiations with Ciolacu, who would have wanted her to cede the Bucharest branch of the party to Daniel Băluță even then. Although she was not willing to voluntarily give up the position of first vice-president, in the end she was forced to remain only at the head of PSD Bucharest.

In a recent post on Facebook, Firea launched an attack on Marcel Ciolacu, to whom she reproached that, last year, she was the PSD's “candidate for the time being” for the Capital City Hall.

“Yes, whoever tried to dig my political hole fell into it,” wrote Firea in that post.

After Nicușor Dan won the elections for the position of general mayor of the Capital, Firea became an MEP. Although she kept managing the Bucharest branch all this time, she relinquished the position to Daniel Băluță, the very day Sorin Grindeanu announced that the mayor of Sector 4 has the support of PSD Bucharest.

Dragoș Benea (Bacău), Francisk Chiriac (Brăila), Mihnea Costoiu – rector of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, MEP Vasile Dîncu, Andrei Dolineaschi – MEP from Bucharest, Marius Dunca (Brașov), Doina Federovici (Botoșani), Adrian Gâdea (Teleorman), Aladin Georgescu (Mehedinți), Romeo Lungu (Buzău), Laurențiu Nistor also received the positions of vice presidents (Hunedoara), Constantin Rădulescu (Vâlcea), Gheorghe Șoldan (Suceava), Adriana Tușa (MP from Bucharest), Gabriel Zetea (Maramureș) and Dumitrița Gliga (Mureș).