Ludovic Orban anticipates the “decisive step” towards the PNL, after the one made in support of Ciucu

The leader of Forza Dreptei, Ludovic Orban, announces, in a post on Facebook, that he could take the “decisive step” towards PNL, News.ro informs. The post comes in the context in which information has appeared related to the discussions for the merger of the two parties.

“In the Bucharest campaign, I took a first step towards the PNL. Maybe the decisive step will follow,” Orban wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

Ludovic Orban was PNL president from 2017 until September 2021, when he lost the party leadership to Florin Cîţu. He resigned from PNL in November 2021, after almost 30 years, and, together with 15 other parliamentarians, created Forţa Dreptei.

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, president of the PNL, recently declared that he agrees with the absorption of Ludovic Orban's party into the PNL, showing that he does not see a problem in discussing this right after the New Year. On the same day, Ludovic Orban announced that the political formation could merge, through absorption, with the PNL next year, but he specified that, before the “effective negotiations”, a “negotiation mandate, which will be taken in the statutory forums of both parties”, is needed. Orban also said that he talked with the president of the PNL, Ilie Bolojan, agreeing that there is “openness to start these discussions”.

“When I was in the campaign and Mr. Orban declared his support for Ciprian Ciucu, we also discussed this and we agreed that, after the elections are over, we will discuss a possible absorption into the PNL of his reign's party. I believe that, after the years he spent in the PNL, after what he did during the time he was a member of the PNL, but also through the support he gave to Mr. Ciprian Ciucu, I don't see a problem so that, immediately after the New Year, we can discuss and see under what conditions this can be done”, declared Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, in an interview with Cotidianul.

Bolojan and Ciucu, favorable to Orban's return

He mentioned that this also means a decision of the two parties and this will be discussed in the next period, most likely, in the two parties. Ilie Bolojan also commented on the discontent in the PNL regarding a possible return of Ludovic Orban to the party.

“Let's not forget that in no party will we have unanimity of opinion vis-à-vis one person or another. Let's not forget how Ludovic Orban lost the presidency of the PNL and in what context this happened and his departure. If I wasn't worried about this topic, I don't know why others would be worried, because I understand that the first thing, I understand that it was said, would be to start changing the President. But I'm not worried about this,” said Ilie Bolojan.

Asked if he is not worried that Ludovic Orban could undermine him, Bolojan said: “I have no problem on this topic. Please believe me that if I had not been called, after the result of the presidential elections in the fall of 2024, I would not have wanted to become the president of the PNL. Please consider that, of course, it happened after the resignation of President Iohannis. Without thinking that it would happen this, I arrived at Cotroceni for three months and because there was no desire of many people to take over this responsibility of prime minister, after three weeks someone had to take it over. So you can use a position to do something or you can use it like that, out of personal pride, to call yourself Mr. President.

And Ciprian Ciucu, declared, immediately after his election as general mayor, a race in which he was supported by Orban, when asked about the possible return of Ludovic Orban to the PNL, that he had been asked this before and that he would remain consistent, having the same answer, “even more so now”, when he was supported by him and he must be fair to him. “Obviously it is normal to support such a return. My opinion is fixed, obviously there will be discussions between the two parties about how it will happen, if it will happen, when it will happen,” Ciucu said.