Ludovic Orban accuses Thuma of a “boisterous lie”. The former prime minister tells how Crin Antonescu was designated as a presidential candidate
Ludovic Orban. Photo: Inquam Photos / George Călin
Former Prime Minister Ludovic Orban stated, in a post on Facebook, that the PNL Ilfov leader, Hubert Thuma, is propagating “a stupid lie” regarding a sabotage of Crin Antonescu's candidacy by some liberals, led by Ilie Bolojan. Orban claims that Thuma promoted the candidacy of Antonescu without the agreement of the PNL president, precisely to block a possible candidacy of the current prime minister. At the same time, Orban also attacks Crint Antonescu, whom he says is “closer to the goldsmiths” than to the liberals.
“Around mid-December 2024, Hubert Thuma, without the knowledge and consent of the president of the PNL, Ilie Bolojan, collected signatures from 25 presidents of county and sector branches of the PNL to support the nomination of Crin Antonescu as a candidate for the presidency of Romania,” claims Ludovic Orban, at the beginning of his post.
According to him, the proposal that Antonescu be the candidate of the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition was made by Kelemen Hunor on December 23, a proposal quickly accepted by the PSD. Bolojan would have been reluctant to such an announcement, as long as there were no polls to evaluate Crin Antonescu's chances. In the end, Ilie Bolojan would have accepted Antonescu's candidacy, at the insistence of the other leaders in the coalition.
Open conflict in the PNL: After Bolojan was accused of being part of a plan to seize power, the prime minister is defended by one of his close associates in the party. “Very disturbing”
“Thuma to put ashes on his head”
“It is interesting that Gabriela Firea spoke positively of Antonescu's possible candidacy the night before the meeting, and Grindeanu proposed as early as December 13 that none of the presidents of the parties in the coalition should be nominated as a presidential candidate, that is, Ilie Bolojan should not be nominated as the coalition's presidential candidate. Even Antonescu admits that the president of the UDMR proposed to him some time before the coalition meeting to run,” continues Orban.
He believes that these data clearly show that Antonescu would have been supported only to block a candidacy of Ilie Bolojan. Despite this, Bolojan also supported the appointment of Antonescu to the PNL National Council on January 26, 2025 and participated in the launch of the candidate program, even though he had already become interim president of Romania.
“In the presidential elections, Antonescu won in Bihor with 37.7%, while in Ilfov, where Thuma had been elected president of the county council with 60%, Antonescu came in 3rd place, with only 20.6%. My conclusion is that Thuma, instead of putting ashes on his head because he was part of a plan to nominate an unsuitable candidate for the presidency, who was not able to enter the second round even though he was supported by an entire governing coalition, he is trying to attract followers in the PNL by propagating a bogus lie, that Bolojan would not have supported Antonescu”, writes Ludovic Orban.
The former prime minister claims that “a losing candidate” was imposed on Ilie Bolojan, a reference to Crin Antonescu. “A candidate who, after not being able to enter the second round, put his brass on his face, showing that he is closer to the aurists than to the liberals,” concluded Orban.
Hubert Thuma's accusations
The liberal Hubert Thuma accused the PNL president, Ilie Bolojan, of “an attempt to “use” the party” and claims that the current prime minister had proposed to support Mircea Geoană or Elena Lasconi in the presidential elections of 2024, to the detriment of a variant within the formation.
Then, in the 2025 elections, “Crin Antonescu was betrayed”, said PNL leader Ilfov, on Sunday evening, on Antena 3, arguing that although he was the presidential candidate supported by the coalition at that time, PSD-PNL-UDMR, “in the public space the idea was maintained that Crin Antonescu would not run for the Presidency of Romania”.
Thuma accused Bolojan of not coming out to deny at the time that he would not run for the party, even though “all the time in the public space there was talk of the fact that “it's not Crin Antonescu. The candidate will be Ilie Bolojan”.
“The second thing: all the people who are now close to Ilie Bolojan within the party, I did not see any of them in the campaign to campaign for Crin Antonescu”, added Hubert Thuma.
