INTERVIEW Nicușor Dan still has the right to come up with a nomination after Veștea. Tomac's proposal is not considered failed, but cancelled, says a former adviser to Traian Băsescu

The artifice used by the president, in the view of former presidential advisor Cristian Hrițuc: no constitutional provision stipulates the conditions for a new appointment, in the scenario where the designated candidate resigns before reaching the Parliament.

• Adrian Veștea was an older option of the “Thuma camp”. Vestea was ready to be PNL president, even before Ilie Bolojan took over the party, says Hrițuc.
• In fact, the anti-Bolojan camp has 4 first vice-presidents, says the interviewee.

Cristian Hrițuc is a Law graduate of Spiru Haret University and a former adviser in the presidential administration, under President Traian Băsescu. Currently, Hrițuc is a political analyst.

HotNews: Mr. Hrițuc, if I used chess as an analogy, is the election of the liberal Adrian Veștea a checkmate move for Nicușor Dan?
Cristian Hrițuc: I don't think the president made a checkmate move. It will depend a lot on the position of the PNL. Vestea is known as a man who is part of the opposition camp in PNL. At this moment, this act of aggression, by which the hostile takeover of the PNL is attempted, could give birth to more violent reactions politically and among the moderate members there, perhaps from the branch presidents who were swinging between the camps. After all, when someone attacks you, there is a tendency to band together and defend yourself.

“We had to have a new round of consultations and the parties to express their point of view”

– There were no consultations. is that ok
–The president is in a vacuum of procedure, because the procedure with Eugen Tomac did not materialize in the vote, he withdrew. We do not have this case expressly provided for in the Constitution, that they should have come again for consultations. We don't have a clear prediction about what happens in this case. There is also the principle of law: where the law does not provide, it is allowed.

From my point of view, fair, democratic, moral, procedural, we should have a new round of consultations and the parties should come to express their point of view.

But the president is probably using this artifice because otherwise it would have shown a greater failure – the conditions for Tomac to reach his majority were not met and if PNL and USR also proposed Bolojan, they were giving a check to Nicușor Dan and he was in an extremely delicate situation.

“This original plan was: the removal of Bolojan”

-How did you call the president's move?
–It is an attack on the PNL. If until now the attack was blamed on a PNL camp and the game with the PSD, and the president was somewhere in anticipation and we could only say that he is turning the game, now the president becomes the main actor who puts the knife in the back of the PNL.

This initial plan was: the removal of Bolojan from the leadership of the Government, after which the PNL coup.

Adrian Veștea is part of the camp of Hubert Thuma, Alina Gorghiu, Toma Petcu, this is where they are located – those who have “the south of the country”, the management of the branches in the south. From my information, after Nicolae Ciucă failed, this camp was preparing Adrian Veștea to be PNL president, even before Ilie Bolojan took over the party.

The news also had a very good relationship with PSD. Consider that, in Brașov, PNL and PSD had only one candidate in the local elections, George Scripcaru. Vestea was also an enemy of USR, i.e. his local game has always been close to PSD.

The anti-Bolojan camp has 4 first vice-presidents

-If Adrian Veștea is part of another camp, how come he was always, literally, to the right of Ilie Bolojan?
–Because Ilie Bolojan made the biggest mistake. When he took over the PNL, he left the game free inside the Permanent Bureau. If until these elections, in the PNL there was a rule that the president comes with his team, Bolojan wanted to be more democratic than the Pope. And now he pulls the strings.

The other camp has three of the four first vice-presidents: Nicoleta Pauliuc – Hubert Thuma's man – Adrian Veștea and Cătălin Predoiu, who is eternally between all the camps until the right one comes out. Ilie Bolojan's mistake is that he did not get involved in forming his own team.