Characterization of Nicușor Dan: “He is a player president, but he plays under different conditions”

Nicușor Dan “transmits that he will not give in to any kind of pressure”, believes political scientist Cristian Pîrvulescu, who commented for HotNews on Nicușor Dan's exit on Wednesday evening. The president made a “call for party accountability at this time” in his two-minute statement.

• “The interest of the party is legitimate, but the interest of the country must always come first,” said the president, at the end of the two days of consultations with the designated prime minister, which ended without any party expressing its official support.
• Eugen Tomac has five more days to obtain the 233 votes necessary for the investiture.

HotNews: It is perhaps the harshest statement of Nicușor Dan recently. Who is a primary recipient of this message?
Cristian Pîrvulescu: Certainly those politicians who made the statements against the president and the attempt to create pressure on the president. In the last few days I have witnessed, from some parties that I thought had given assurances to the president that they would support his project…

– PNL and USR?
– No, I mean UDMR, I mean PSD equally. So not only PNL and USR. PNL and USR, in fact, remained constant. PNL and USR were from the beginning rather hostile to the idea of ​​a Prime Minister Tomac. While UDMR and PSD were not hostile and suggested that they would support such a thing – as far as we understand, because these meetings were never made public.

In the meetings between the president and the party leaders, this formula was presented. The PNL was categorically against through the voice of Mr. Bolojan, the USR was skeptical, without going as far as a total decision against the president, while PSD, UDMR, the minorities and non-affiliates rather agreed to support.

The president finds that, although they promised something, they do not keep their promises and radically change the speech. It draws their attention to the risks, which are not just political, because many are thinking, as the president said, in terms of the 2028 local and parliamentary elections. But there are economic risks.

What Nicușor Dan does “even better than other presidents have done”

– The President began his speech with “I have heard opinions that I have given satisfaction to X over Y”. Do you think that the president acted to the PSD's advantage?
– No, by no means. I know that what many were waiting for was that the president of Romania would remain a politician engaged in a certain direction. He could not neglect not only the responsibilities of the position, which are very clearly defined in Article 85 of the Constitution, especially in 85.3.

But he could not ignore the reality of the fact that he has no political support from a party, and the party he created does not seem willing to give him this support.

In fact, the most important criticism comes from this party and those close to the USR in the PNL. I come from the side of Mr. Ciucu and from some of the USR who believe that the president did not fully support the Bolojan government.

The president does not support governments, the president does nothing but ensure the survival of the state, which is what he said in the press statement he made. It has an institutional responsibility beyond political parties.

He could not, in the situation where the relations were strained in the coalition, do anything else. It could not compel a party, without violating its constitutional duties, to remain in government, especially since that party believed that the pressures that had been brought and the situation had changed radically. What it can do is try to provide stability.

The president's duty is to ensure the conditions for the powers in the state to function and the state to achieve its objectives.

I think that's exactly what he's doing, and he's doing it even better than other presidents have done, but it's not what many of his supporters expected, who wanted a different kind of president.

Nicușor Dan is not a spectator president, he is a player president, but he plays under different conditions and these conditions are related to the lack of a supporting party and the change in the legislation regarding the referendum and the risks of a suspension, which at this moment is demanded by the extremists, but which is thought by many, including his supporters. Either such a scenario is a catastrophic scenario, which would push Romania into the abyss.

“will not yield”

– How will Nicușor Dan be affected by a possible rejection, after he came out again to support his election?
– He won't give in. Nicusor Dan will have a second proposal. If the parties will go on a direct confrontation with the president, on deepening the crisis and pushing Romania into the abyss, Nicușor Dan will come up with a downright technocratic proposal, because until now he came up with a proposal of independent politicians, with a technical government.

– Can PNL, USR, UDMR and PSD vote alongside the small groups, broken from the parties categorized as anti-European?
– I am convinced that, upon a rational analysis, including groups within USR and PNL will become circumspect and try to relate realistically to this situation. You know that a government cannot be judged before it comes to govern. The Bolojan government is judged according to the results of governance, not according to the promises it made. The same will happen with the Tomac government, to the extent that it will receive the investiture vote.

It is a government that will have to solve the important problems and that the political parties will have to agree on. Because they don't have a majority. Or flip it and take responsibility for a crisis. We cannot play with crises indefinitely, just because political parties have interests they can consider legitimate. But they are not national interests, they are group interests.

– Is there any chance that Nicușor Dan will change something with this message? The Liberals, at least, will make a final decision in less than 24 hours.
– I believe that the president's intervention has a clear direction: that of forcing him to take responsibility. We will see. I don't expect PNL to give up. I don't expect Mr. Bolojan to give up. But you saw that there are voices inside the PNL, such as Alin Tişe, who are asking for a vote in favor of Tomac.