Summoned to resign from the Senate “until the principles don't oxidize”, Victoria Stoiciu comes up with a reply: “They only left with the logo”

After explaining to the HotNews public why she decided to resign from the PSD after submitting the motion of censure, Senator Victoria Stoiciu wanted to convey a message to her challengers within the formation who asked her to resign from the Parliament as well.

On Wednesday evening, in a post on her Facebook page, the senator insisted that she “worked more for social democracy than many” from the PSD. Victoria Stoiciu also says that she remained consistent with social-democratic values, while “others remained only with the logo”.

The head of PSD Vaslui, MP Adrian Solomon, on Tuesday asked the senator to submit her resignation from Parliament as well, after she announced that she was leaving PSD, because the next day the leader of the social democrats, Sorin Grindeanu, said about her that “she may also resign from the Senate, that after all she was elected on the PSD lists”.

Victoria Stoiciu's message

“I am told by some of my former colleagues in the party that “the party made me” and that I should resign from the Senate. So I make a clarification – to the surprise of some and unlike others, I had a career before politics. I wrote in the press, I did research for institutions in Romania and abroad. My CV is public”, wrote Victoria Stoiciu, in the message published on Wednesday evening online.

“And, very importantly, I worked for social democracy more than many in the party did. For authentic, European social democracy. Because I was active for almost 20 years in a German social democratic foundation, which promoted left-wing ideas and policies in Romania,” she continued.

Victoria Stoiciu also states that the mandate in the Romanian Senate “was given to me by the voters” and that it “is not the property of the party”.

“It's true, my name on the ballot was under the PSD logo. But after the pact with AUR, I stayed with social democracy, and others only with the logo. Who should leave?”, the senator wrote, putting in the link in the comments the article in which she motivated her resignation from PSD.

On Wednesday, the senator explained in detail to the HotNews audience why she decided to resign from the formation led by Sorin Grindeanu at the moment when the PSD-AUR joint motion was initiated.

“But I want one thing to be very clear: in all this time of almost 20 years, I have not changed. Never. I have always been the same, with the same beliefs, with the same left-wing vision. The one that was changing, oscillating between modernization and old reflexes, was the PSD. When I entered, in 2024, the party finally seemed to want to change its skin. It was talking about openness, about new ideas, about dialogue with civil society. It had rejected the nationalist-populist rhetoric, the messages that smelled of PRM and the 2000s. I chose to believe in this signal and put my shoulder to it. Today, through the pact with AUR, PSD sends the opposite signal. That's why I'm leaving,” Stoiciu wrote.

She announced on Tuesday morning that she was leaving PSD because of her party's collaboration with AUR to topple the government led by liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

“Romania needs social democracy. And I remained the only social democrat assumed in the Parliament”, the senator declared at that time, for HotNews, specifying that she will not resign from the Parliament and that she refused to sign the censure motion.

“I believe that an absolute cordon sanitaire is needed to keep the extremist forces in total political isolation. Any violation of this principle is not only a tactical error, but a normalization of fascism. Step by step, until the monster is too big for us to kidnap,” added Stoiciu, noting that for the time being she will continue as an independent in the Legislature.

Solomon: “Quick, before the principles oxidize”

Later on Tuesday, the head of PSD Vaslui, MP Adrian Solomon, asked Senator Stoiciu to submit her resignation from Parliament as well.

“I found out, from Facebook, that Mrs. Victoria Stoiciu has principles and red lines that she cannot cross! Then, don't forget that she was elected on the PSD LIST in Vaslui county! Therefore, she occupies a place for which the citizens of Vaslui voted for a PSD member!”, wrote Solomon, in a message broadcast by the PSD branch in Vaslui.

“In this case, there can only be one solution for the distinguished lady to remain with unsullied honor: RESIGNATION from the Senate! PS: Quickly, before the principles oxidize!!!”, PSD leader Vaslui also wrote.

Grindeanu: “I am not the author of his lordship's arrival in the party”

In an intervention on Tuesday evening on Romania TV, the president of the Social Democrats, Sorin Grindeanu, was also asked about the departure of Senator Stoiciu.

“Don't take me down this line, because I'm not the author of his lordship's coming to the party, and I'm not even going to speak badly. If his lordship chose this path, it's her job. Maybe she'll resign from the Senate too, because after all she was elected on the PSD lists”, was Grindeanu's reply.

The censure motion initiated by the PSD together with the AUR against the government led by Ilie Bolojan, entitled “STOP the “Bolojan Plan” to destroy the economy, impoverish the population and fraudulently sell the state's wealth”, was presented on Wednesday in the plenary session of the Parliament.

The debate and vote on the motion will take place next week, on May 5.

The document was signed by 254 parliamentarians, and to lead to the dismissal of the Bolojan government, the motion will need a majority of at least 233 votes in the Parliament plenary.