Predictable End to Political Crisis

The Social Liberal Union no longer exists, following a split between its senior members, the Social Democrats and the Liberals.

Ştefan Stoica, 26.02.2014, 14:21

After more than two weeks of tensions and conflicts over a planned government reshuffle, the Liberal Party has decided to break up with the Social Democrats and withdraw its members from all ministries and government agencies. Speaking after a difficult party meeting, the Liberal leader Crin Antonescu said the break-up of the Social Liberal coalition was natural, given that it was no longer serving its initial purpose:

Crin Antonescu: “I think it’s only fair not to prolong the hypocrisy, but have the courage to admit that the Social Liberal Union no longer exists because it doesn’t have a reason to exist, given that we were no longer pursuing the goals we committed ourselves to in the first place.”

The Social Democratic Party was prepared for the split despite a final call for reconciliation made by its leader, Prime Minister Victor Ponta. The Social Democrats revealed they already started talks with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania to form a new majority. The same sources say Victor Ponta will announce his new cabinet on the 4th of March, a cabinet made up of the Social Democratic Party and a number of smaller parties such as the Conservative Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians.

The latest developments on the Romanian political scene have come as no surprise for many commentators. Some say the real reason for the coalition’s break-up is not Victor Ponta’s refusal to appoint the Liberal mayor of Sibiu Klaus Johannis as a deputy prime minister and interior minister, but Crin Antonescu’s realisation that the Social Democrats would no longer support his run for president next autumn, choosing instead a new candidate, perhaps Victor Ponta himself.

There are also voices saying the Social Liberal Union was a questionable project from the very beginning, given that it was initiated by two leaders separated by doctrine but united in their opposition for Traian Basescu. The coalition’s failure thus proves that a partnership based solely on shared enmity for a third party has little chance to survive. The Social Liberal Union has dismantled having achieved none of its main goals, such as the revision of the Constitution and the country’s territorial and administrative reform.