A former PNL leader asks Bolojan not to welcome Ludovic Orban into the party. “True liberals don't leave when they're no longer prime ministers”
Former Transport Minister Lucian Bode launched an attack on Ludovic Orban on Sunday, saying the Liberal National Party should not welcome him back into the party.
Ludovioc Orban and Lucian Bode PHOTO: The truth
Lucian Bode, former minister in the Orban and Ciucă governments, criticized Ludovic Orban, in a message posted on Facebook during the PNL celebration.
“After 151 years of existence, the National Liberal Party is facing a real challenge of identity and political direction. The objective of a large PNL in 2028 is legitimate and mobilizing. But the essential question remains: how large can the PNL become if, instead of building unity, we create faults? Labels like “true liberals”, “reformist liberals”, “those who obeyed the orders of former president Iohannis” do not unite. On the contrary, they delimit and exclude. And a great party is not built on exclusion”he wrote on Facebook.
He points out that after the merger with the PDL, all became liberals, not some “more true” than others.
“12 years ago, the PNL went through a major transformation by merging with the PDL. Then, in the branches where the old PDL was in the majority, there was no preferential treatment or differentiation. There was respect and equal integration. After the merger, everyone became liberal, not some more 'true' than others. It is a lesson that colleagues from Alba, Arad, Brașov, Cluj, Neamț, Sălaj, Timiș, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava and many other organizations know well. To return today to the idea of categories of liberals is, in fact, to convey that we do not want a large GNP, but a smaller and easier to control one. And this signal goes directly to the territory, to those at the grassroots, to the active party who needs direction, not labels”he said.
Thus, Bode launches an attack on Ludovic Orban and Cristian Ghinea.
“You cannot build solidly on the basis of delimitations. Those who want to return to the party with a grudge or a desire for revenge cannot coagulate the energies of the PNL. And to be clear, I am referring to Ludovic Orban. At the same time, it is difficult to swallow lessons about reform from some who, when they were in power, in a liberal government, punished ministries just because the Minister of the Interior was liberal and cut European funding of some performing structures in attracting European funds, just because the decision was in their hands. I find it hard to believe that such people can honestly stand by to build the great PNL; rather, they risk contributing to its disintegration, I mean Cristian Ghinea”Bode said.
Thus, Lucian Bode emphasizes that “the real liberals do not leave the PNL when they are no longer prime ministers”.
“From my point of view, real liberals do not leave the PNL when they are no longer prime ministers. Nor do they divide the party into camps when cohesion is needed. If the future PNL is built only on these boundaries and we leave out of the equation those who represent a conservative-moderate direction, balanced, without aggressive accents, then that “big PNL” risks being just a form without substance. This is the time for lucidity, balance and responsibility. Not for labels. Just as it is time for unity, but a unity built on liberal identity, our values and mutual respect”he also wrote.
Lucian Bode was general secretary of PNL until Ilie Bolojan took over the party.
In 2023, Bode was accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis, the plagiarism verdict being given by Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca.
