Lia Olguța Vasilescu with Sorin Grindeanu PHOTO Hepta
PSD these days he is going through an image crisis similar to the one he was going through in the last part of the “Dragnea Era”. The social democrats took the place of those from GOLD regarding the antipathy of the public and became the main “punching bag” in the Romanian media, after dismissing the Bolojan Government along with his party through a motion of censure George Simion.
PSD is under attack on all fronts, from public and political discourse to opinion polls, and the party leadership seems not to have anticipated this wave of criticism. PNL, USR and the image vectors in this political area are trying to isolate the PSD alongside the AUR, among the “anti-European” or “anti-Western” parties, and Professor Pîrvulescu is of the opinion that one of the stakes of this conflict is the taking over of mayors from the social democrats.
He says that PSD is making many tactical mistakes, including voting alongside AUR on the law on the financial control of non-governmental organizations, which caused a huge wave of criticism, especially from civil society.
“PSD makes errors upon errors, and these errors only put it in a complicated situation. The errors are tactical, they do not pursue exactly the same goals as Dragnea, and they are probably also an effect of the radical change of line to congressbut these errors only accumulate and create this image of a party that no longer follows a line as pro-European as it claims,” he says, in an intervention for Ziare.com.
He emphasizes that, in general, in Romania, the pro-European line of the parties is “asserted” rather than “assumed and internalized”. “But what happened to the law on the financial control of non-governmental organizations shows us very clearly that they are tempted to use absolutely any means.”
“They tactically voted for this designbut the alliance with the AUR was also a tactic, and all these tactical choices put one on top of the other show a certain tendency and, obviously, those who hoped for decades in a row that the FSN, FDSN, PDSR, PSD would disappear. I now feel that there is now a possibility and it is really interesting to see how it gains, beyond journalistic support, also a kind of analytical credibility, because we are being told about the disappearance of the center, PSD being an ambiguous center, and now it is simply laminated by the conflict between the two parties”, says the political scientist.
From an ideological point of view, says the political scientist, PNLPSD and AUR are not that far apart. “Distances appear when it comes to European assumption and the rule of law. Here, regarding the rule of law and the supporters of the rule of law, who are the representatives of the civil, liberal society, the PSD turns out to be much closer to the AUR than to USR“
“It is true that when he promoted representatives of NGO-s, Bolojan won a good part of this area, and PSD, with the ejection of Victoriea Stoiciu, lost any connection with this area. In fact, Victoria Stoiciu is the only one who, elected on the PSD lists, criticized the law in Senate. The PSD-ists voted and remained silent, but their vote has very big consequences”, states Cristian Pîrvulescu.
The university professor says that PSD leaves room for interpretations and they are under constant pressure. “In the course of these 30 years, I have heard countless analyzes of PSD’s demise. It has survived, but there has never been a political organization that was so important and managed to get so close to PSD voters as AUR.”
“This is a very clear truth. PSD has a very serious problem with AUR, not with PNL and USR. They are unconscious if they think otherwise. With PRM they solved the problem simply. That is, they massively took over members from the PRM in the period 2003-2006. Now it will be very complicated. First of all, because the Western attention is very high,” she adds.
Professor Pîrvulescu believes that, in this crisis that the PSD is going through, the PNL aims to take over the political staff, mayors and their electoral dowries. “The PSD mayors will not go to the AUR if they do not have the guarantee that they will have access to resources, and at the moment the PNL is safer than the AUR.”
