Stelian Tănase, about the independence trap of Nicușor Dan: the plan behind a technocrat prime minister
Political analyst Stelian Tănase explains why Nicușor Dan did not support Ilie Bolojan and bets on a technocrat prime minister. In his opinion, the president is isolated in Cotroceni, without his own parliamentary support, while the government is controlled by “others”.
Nicusor Dan sees Bolojan as a potential counter-candidate for the Presidency. PHOTO: AFP
Invited on Saturday in a show on Digi24, the writer and political analyst Stelian Tănase detailed how he sees the beginning of Nicușor Dan's mandate at the Cotroceni Palace and why, in his opinion, he did not support Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan in the period between the submission and the vote for the censure motion against the prime minister.
According to the analyst, the electoral success of Nicușor Dan was built on the image of a candidate from outside the political system, perceived as “anti-Semite”, although as general mayor of the Capital he was in this gear. His message won the voters, at a time when the electorate was divided between the deep dissatisfaction with the parties in power (PSD and PNL) and the fear that the government could end up in the hands of AUR. However, once he became president, Nicuşor Dan found himself isolated, without support in Parliament from a party and “does not have his own government”
“Nicusor Dan, as president, has a problem. He has more, but… He entered Cotroceni, he won the presidency with a very correct calculation. He said: “I am the anti-system candidate, I am not in a party, I am not represented by a party” and that's how the electorate won, who were fed up with the PSD-PNL rivalry, so the parties were very depreciated at that time. The calculation was correct, but at the moment he entered Cotroceni he realized a reality, he has no vote in the Parliament. He does not have a political group to support him, at least a group, not to mention a party that must be in the majority, in order to give coherence to the governing act”. said Stelian Tănase.
This isolation would have put Nicușor Dan in a fragile and extremely uncomfortable position, because, says Stelian Tănase, for a president, the support of a parliamentary majority and a politically close government is decisive for the functioning of power.
“It's good to have a majority in Parliament with which you also form the government and you, the president, represent that trend in society. This makes the kitchen of power work. And he found out that he doesn't have a parliamentary party to support him, that the government is not his, it's a government made by others and he can't invent a party now. Maybe in the second term, because it's already taking time, he has to gain ground and I think he would also an attempt that will fail. This idea, to create a presidential party, is one of the most sinister, it has a South American air.” the analyst explained.
In this context, he believes that Nicușor Dan is now trying to find a formula to create his own area of influence in the Executive, by imposing a technocrat prime minister.
“But he can do one thing, and I think that's what he's doing now. He can have his own government. And others have tried to have 'my government', you know? And that's what I think he's doing. We're served, under the facade of a government of technocrats, by a presidential adviser as prime minister, who's not even a technocrat, he's a well-versed politician, he led a party. He's not a technocrat. But I think that Nicusor Dan wants to pulls his party, because he found the limits of the scenario with which he entered Cotroceni, that is, this idea that he is independent, he is outside the party system, it is not possible without parties”, said Stelian Tanase.
Ilie Bolojan, potential opponent for the Presidency
The analyst also spoke about the relationship between Nicușor Dan and Ilie Bolojan, offering his own interpretation of the fact that the president did not publicly support the latter during the tense period between the submission and the vote of the censure motion against the prime minister.
Thus, according to Stelian Tănase, Nicusor Dan is already thinking about a second term as president and sees Ilie Bolojan as a possible important political opponent.
“I can tell you what impression I have, looking carefully at the political life. Nicușor Dan declared from the beginning that he wanted a second term right from the beginning. I think on the first or second day of Cotroceni. I don't know who put it in his head or maybe he himself had this impression that Bolojan will run for the presidency and will be his main rival in the corridor he is running. It is a similar situation in Ukraine, in Kiev. So he received sympathetically the censure motion and the idea of getting rid of Bolojan, because he had this in mind, that he is the main counter-candidate for a new mandate. I don't know to what extent he is involved in the plot that was born here, I don't know who these security guards who are around them collaborated with, or with both of them. It is certain, if you remember that throughout the actual crisis, Nicușor Dan never uttered a word, good or bad, not a single word about Bolojan, even if he was president”, Stelian Tănase also stated.
