INTERVIEW “I'm also waiting for the reaction of President Nicușor Dan”. An experienced PNL politician says how he thinks Romania should position itself on the situation in Venezuela

Although the acting president Nicolas Maduro is detained by the US, those in his close circle are still in charge of Venezuela, despite President Trump's statements yesterday that the US will lead the country, PNL senator Daniel Fenechiu believes, in an interview given to HotNews. Fenechiu says that he expects that there will be street movements of the opposition in Venezuela, and later that elections will be organized through which the people can choose a new government.

Daniel Fenechiu, a politician in his fourth parliamentary term, entered the Parliament for the first time in 2012, on the “People's Party – Dan Diaconescu” lists. In the same mandate, he moved to the PNL, where he has remained until now.

Daniel Fenechiu is the leader of the PNL senators and, thus, is part of the leadership of the Parliament. Over the years, regardless of the people who took over the leadership of the party, Fenechiu remained one of the main leaders and communicators of the PNL.

“There are certain priorities for world health and hygiene”

– HotNews: How should Romania position itself vis-à-vis the events in Venezuela?
– Daniel Fenechiu: Romania is part of the European Union and it is quite natural that our position is on the one hand circumscribed by the EU position, on the other hand, the US is our main strategic partner and I think that Romania must be somewhere between the EU position and the US position.

A cautious position, in which to evoke as clearly as possible that we are followers of democracy, and if the purpose of the movement that took place in Venezuela is to deal a strong blow to drug trafficking and the supply of drugs to the US, then obviously we have to accept this action of the US.

Beyond approaches like violation of international law, interference in the territory of an independent and sovereign state and so on, there are certain priorities for the health and hygiene of the world that do not know if from a legal perspective they justify such moves, but from a pragmatic perspective and from the perspective of finality they are quite common. I've seen this stuff before.

If they had acted strictly in ways regulated by international law, UN resolutions and so on, other people who were doing a lot of harm would not have been removed either.

We must be somewhere in line with the EU's position, as you have seen, the EU also has a cautious position. We must never forget that the USA is Romania's number 1 strategic partner.

“At the moment, the buttons of power are still with the authoritarian government that Maduro managed”

– What do you think will happen next in Venezuela? Donald Trump has announced that the US will take over. However, the current vice president there says Maduro remains president. How will things work out for the people there?
– Nothing unnatural. In Venezuela the situation is divided. There is a part of the population that supports the Maduro regime, and there is a part of the population that voted with the opposition, that supported the opposition and would undoubtedly like a change. At the moment, still, the buttons of power are with the authoritarian government that Maduro managed and that today is managed by the vice president, the minister of defense, the minister of the interior.

Trump's statement that the US will govern Venezuela during the transitional period is a Trump-style statement. Not always all of Trump's statements come true in the way and the meaning we give to Trump's statements.

“I expect there will be street movements in the near future”

From my point of view, it is quite obvious that at some point the future government of Venezuela will develop some kind of relationship with the US, because it will be a government that will certainly be installed with significant US support. Let's not forget that at the moment there is an important deployment of forces in the coastal zone of Venezuela, let's not forget that not far from yesterday there was a landing in which the elite American special forces extracted the president from there.

I expect that in the near future there will be street movements of Maduro's opponents and a transitional version will be reached in which people from the second echelon, who have a decent, civilized relationship and who could even be from the USA, take power in order to organize new elections. I don't think it will lead to the installation of the former president, who, I pray, would have won the elections, but Maduro would have falsified the results. I don't think so because it's been a year. But in relation to the statements of Trump and JD Vance it would not be out of the question.

I think that the most correct option would be an electoral process in which, including from the opposition area, there could be more candidates to run, to present their programs, priorities, positions, including internationally.

Trump's real interest in Venezuela

In everything Trump said, he referred to the fact that Maduro was a leader of drug traffickers, things like that. But he also referred to the fact that “they stole our oil”. True, it happened before Maduro came to power, but I have no doubt that the nationalization of American companies is at the moment the main objective of the USA, to return the ownership of oil exploitations to American companies.

I think that is the fundamental stake of what is happening today in Venezuela, and I think that American policy will fold on this priority, that is, those who understand to fix this matter that happened against American companies will be favored, helped, supported.

Will the peace negotiations in Ukraine be affected?

– Let's go to what concerns us more, because we are here, almost. Do you think the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will be affected after this US intervention?
– I don't know if they will necessarily be affected, because at the moment we find that between the force of law and the right of force in the world, the right of force prevails. So I think the US position has increased with this action yesterday.

In the situation where the US insists and pressures Russia for peace, I think this will happen. Behind closed doors, in the chancelleries of the great powers, there are also certain interests that are not always extremely public. We, the Romanians, lived through Yalta and we know this.

But I don't think the US position has decreased because of this action, on the contrary. I believe that if one really wants to force Putin to agree to a peace settlement, one can get there. Now it is very true that it is complicated to make a peace in Ukraine that involves what is in the current peace plan, i.e. ceding territories.

But I think that it is possible to reach a variant of a freezing of the conflict – on the system everyone stays in the territories they have, and in time it could be possible to reach a conclusion of a peace agreement with international guarantees for Ukraine and with the establishment of those guarantees of non-expansion of NATO and of not housing troops in the area of ​​the direct borders with Russia. It's a complicated situation, I don't think things will move quickly.

Why hasn't Nicușor Dan come out with any public position so far

– Until now, President Nicușor Dan has not had any public reaction regarding the situation in Venezuela. I saw a reaction from the prime minister and the foreign minister. Was there a need for a reaction from the president?
– It is always good for the president to have a position on important world events. I think the president let the foreign minister, later the prime minister, come out with a position. I think Nicușor Dan will also come out.

Dan Nicusor is not a president who goes out, so to speak, “to fight the fish”, he usually tells them and I think we will also have the position of the president. I wouldn't risk it, because, with or without the president's position, Romania's position was expressed by the foreign minister and the prime minister, and being part of the EU it is as obvious as possible that, please, we are in that area.

That's why I'm also waiting for the president to come out, who I think will come out with a statement in the tone of what the foreign minister and the prime minister said.