INTERVIEW. Ludovic Orban compares the current administration with the Carlist dictatorship. “Nowhere Dan shows a very sad face.” The President's Plan and the “Free Electron” Theory

In an interview for the HotNews audience, Ludovic Orban accuses Nicușor Dan of moving away from democracy by trying to impose “his own government”. Eugen Tomac's support was negotiated by the PSD even before the appointment, believes the former PNL prime minister.

• Nicușor Dan plays the PSD game, which is “the president's favorite political partner”, claims Ludovic Orban, a consistent opponent of the Social Democrats. According to Orban, Sorin Grindeanu was not appointed prime minister because he did not want to, although, democratically, he should have received the mandate.
• Orban was a presidential adviser in Nicușor Dan's team for almost a month. In November 2025, he left following political tensions between the two.
• In 2020, the PNL led by Ludovic Orban supported Nicușor Dan in the won race for the Capital City Hall. Later, Orban and his new party, Forța Dreptei, supported Dan for a second term in Bucharest.

Profile of Romania's presidents: from “Perestroika” to “Carlist dictatorship”

HotNews: Mr. Orban, you have met all the heads of state that Romania had in the post-December period. Until we get to the one who, these days, is negotiating the future government, how would you characterize those who have already left Cotroceni?

Ludovic Orban: Iliescu, communist. He believed he was implementing Glasnost and Perestroika (no Gorbachev policies). He blocked Romania's transition to democracy and a market economy as much as he could.

Emil Constantinescu was a decent, reasonable president, but lacking the necessary skills to be able to… as he also said, he was defeated by the Services.

Traian Băsescu, a very present president, involved partisan, but abusive and with a negative influence on the evolution of democracy.

Klaus Iohannis, in his first mandate, did as much as he had to. In his second term, he no longer existed, plus he betrayed the electorate that trusted him, returning the political opponent to power, namely the PSD, by imposing a “monstrous coalition” – after which he disappeared from the landscape.

Dan Nicușor is the president who at least showed his face since his first term. He is doing completely and utterly different than those who supported him wanted.

– How do you see the last public appearance of President Nicușor Dan, in which he called for political responsibility and warned us that “things will happen by 2028”?
– Words aside, he had little left and he threatened all of us who have opinions other than his opinion that many negative things will happen until 2028. He was threatening, he was full of negative energy. I found this positioning completely inadmissible.

In general, what Nicușor Dan wants to do has nothing to do with democracy. The government is not the emanation of the president's personal desire. The government is the result of the will expressed by the citizens in the parliamentary elections.

In all democratic countries, the president of the party that wins the election, has the largest number of MPs and is able to form a governing coalition is appointed prime minister.

You cannot appoint someone who has not entered Parliament. It's like making the national team with players from Division A in Division B.

“No Dan wants to party”

It seems to me that President Nicușor Dan shows a monstrous face. Let's not call him monstrous, an extremely ugly, ugly face that he didn't show until he became president.

– Do you think that the call to responsibility persistently addressed to the parties represents, indirectly, a call to the PNL and USR parliamentarians to betray the party line and vote for Eugen Tomac?
– It wasn't explicit, but the message itself is something like this. I don't know what Nicușor Dan is doing directly and I don't think he is even personally involved, but the people around him deal with that, to create dissent in the USR and the PNL. Honestly, it seems to me basically the Carlist dictatorship. Charles II did this, he crushed democracy, he put Guță Tătărescu (Gheorghe Tătărescu, appointed prime minister in 1930, ed.) as prime minister, not the president of the National Liberal Party, precisely to create a dissidence in the National Liberal Party. To punish the Liberals for opposing the succession to Charles II.

It seems that the political enemies of President Nicușor Dan are precisely the center-right democratic political formations, the National Liberal Party and USR. Instead of being the main partners, Nicușor Dan turned them into political opponents. And he seems very, very angry that Ilie Bolojan and Dominic Fritz don't want to listen to his orders.

– Why would Nicușor Dan propose a man who suits only the PSD?
– His government. That seems to be what he wants, to have a government with people close to him who will listen to him and rule according to his will. This is the objective that Nicușor Dan has. After the absolutely unacceptable way in which he behaves with the parties that are somewhat close to him, the National Liberal Party and the USR, which he antagonizes with all the gestures he makes, I think that he wants this government to become his party. Because otherwise it has no logic. If we sit and analyze the fact that he appointed a prime minister who is his advisor, that a large part of the ministers are ministers who come from the working apparatus of the Presidency, it shows that it is his government. However, if he fails in the investiture procedure, it will be the personal failure of Nicușor Dan.

A government supported by “free electrons”

– Do you still see any chance for Eugen Tomac to convince those from PNL, who have already made a decision, and those from USR?
– The positioning of the National Liberal Party and the positioning of USR were very clear. Today, the only party that supports Eugen Tomac is PSD. Let's not pretend we don't see. PSD started lobbying for Tomac, gathering votes for Tomac, at least 10 days before the official nomination. Or, all those who are in this government must know that it is a PSD surrogate government.

PNL and USR will not vote. Most likely, UDMR will not vote. UDMR is quite predictable and usually, once positioned, does not change position much. The positions taken by President Kelemen Hunor were quite clear. The UDMR, in general, did not support this idea of ​​a technocratic government.

There are also parliamentarians of the national minorities whom I know personally and who will not vote for this undemocratic formula, this emanation of the personal desires of President Nicușor Dan. So, in order for this government to be sworn in, votes will have to be taken from Şoșoacă's parliamentarians, from Anamaria Gavrila's parliamentarians or from those who were on the lists of Șoșoacă and Anamaria Gavrila and are now free electrons in parliament, who have already violated their “representation contract” by leaving the party on the lists of which they were elected.

– Do you think the Tomac government will pass in the end?
– Most likely not.

PSD ended up supporting a product of Băsescu. Embarrassing!

– Two weeks ago, you said that you would be happy to see the PSD supporting Traian Băsescu's emul. What is the history of PSD with Eugen Tomac?
– Eugen Tomac is the president of the party created by Traian Băsescu. The president of PMP arrived supported by Traian Băsescu. Raised to PD, PDL, PMP. He is a close friend of Traian Băsescu. However, as far as I can remember, Traian Băsescu was an enemy of the PSD. Never manage the PSD. There were hard battles that took place. And now PSD has come to support a political product of the political enemy. It seems to me that they have reached an embarrassing situation even for the PSD. Eugen Tomac knew when he was appointed by Nicușor Dan that he only had the support of the PSD and that the chance of getting the support of the PNL and USR was minimal.

“Ilie Bolojan was a diplomat”. Ludovic Orban would have answered the president more harshly

– How do you see Ilie Bolojan's answer to Nicușor Dan? The PNL leader told him that he should have called for responsibility before the censure motion.
– Mr. Ilie Bolojan manages the president. If I had been in Ilie Bolojan's place, I would have told him many more things. Ilie Bolojan was tactful, diplomatic.

Nicușor Dan did not make a sound about all the crap that the PSD did: that it blocked for months the reform of the administration, that it blocked a series of government measures, the reform of state companies, that it systematically attacked, in all voices, not only Prime Minister Bolojan, but also other ministers who were cabinet colleagues, that it voted simple motions against some ministers of other parties in the coalition. He didn't make a sound when the scandal of the plagiarism of the Minister of Justice (no. Radu Marinescu), the one who made the selection of chief prosecutors, whom Nicușor Dan appointed less than 24 hours after he received the proposals, appeared. He didn't make a sound when PSD agreed with AUR, repeatedly, to modify important laws, including the state budget law. I have never heard that Nicușor Dan reproached the PSD for destroying this governing coalition. He speaks generally about parties.

“For me, things are very clear. The president's favorite political partner is the PSD. For a year now”

Nobody had to do what is done in a normal democracy. Who brought down the government? PSD. If you brought down the government, you showed that you have a parliamentary majority, take the mandate and form a government. Are you not able? I give the mandate to the candidate proposed by PNL. The fact that this did not happen indicates some understanding between the social democrats and Nicușor Dan.

The only political party among the big ones that does not want early elections today is PSD. Because PSD fell after the disaster it caused and after the political crisis generated without any reason and without any solution. Or, Nicușor Dan says that he does not want to dissolve the parliament and that he does not want early elections. In fact, it represents the interest of the PSD, which runs away from early elections like “the devil of incense”.

Grindeanu does not want to assume the responsibility of the government now, because he is not sure that he has the ability to obtain a majority. And if Grindeanu is appointed and does not obtain the investiture of his government, he goes home. The PSD sweeps him from the leadership instantly, because already in the PSD there is a deep dissatisfaction with the way Grindeanu leads the party.

Orban believes that the next prime ministerial proposal will be from PNL and USR

– You know liberals very well. Do you see any chance that some PNL MPs will break the party line and vote for the Tomac government?
– Even if there will be, they will be very, very few. And anyway, if there will be someone who will vote for the Tomac Government, he will automatically cease his activity in the National Liberal Party. Today's decision is not only taken by the Politburo. Party parliamentarians, MEPs, county council presidents and municipal mayors participated in the Political Bureau meeting. It was a broad representation.

– If the Tomac government falls, how should the PNL position itself in the next consultations?
– I am convinced that PNL and USR will come up with a proposal for the prime minister. I don't think that if the Tomac Government fails, the president even allows himself to make another political experiment and deepen the crisis by appointing another person who is not related to the parliamentary parties.