Catalin Drula, validated as USR Chair: We'll deliver true opposition, to PNL, PSD fear

USR (Save Romania Union) will deliver the opposition for real, to the fear of PNL (National Liberal Party) and PSD (Social Democratic Party), said Catalin Drula, on Saturday, after being validated as president of the USR at an online congress of the party.

"We have ended the USR Congress that validated the presidential elections, which have just came to an end. With this last procedural step today, I am officially the president of USR with a full mandate. It is a mandate that I have asked my colleagues for for unity, stability and coherence, for efficiency, and that is what I will deliver. To the fear of PNL and PSD, USR will deliver the opposition for real. Why do we do this?! Because PSD and PNL are breaking Romania in two. There are millions of families who work honestly, who respect the rules, who try to build a future for themselves and for their children and this is a Romania that suffers deeply and the end of this suffering cannot be seen," said Catalin Drula, at a press conference at the headquarters of USR Timis, alongside the mayor of western Timisoara, Dominic Fritz.

He accused PSD and PNL of leading Romania to bankruptcy.

"Inflation is out of control, galloping interest rates are soaring, taxes are increasing and Romania is at risk of poverty. On the other side we have their Romania, of the privileged who took power in politics to feed themselves and the party clientele, those who gathered all the power in their hands with this super-majority at the national level. They are the ones who want to be above the rules, they are the ones who give themselves special pensions, unseemly salaries from public money, the ones who hire their relatives and party cronies, to the state. These two parties - PNL and PSD - are leading Romania to bankruptcy today, with all the speed forward to bankruptcy," Drula stressed.

According to Drula, the government keeps on losing money it doesn't have.

"For every 4 RON collected to the state budget, another 2 RON is borrowed, one to cover the past debts and one to finance. Food prices have risen by 20%, inflation has reached 15%, the interest rates Romanians pay are, today, the highest in the last 12 years. During this time, instead of keeping the state's expenditures under control, they hired 15 thousand new public servants in the first 6 months. Now they're getting ready to cover some of this hole by putting their hand in people's pockets. Our mission, USR's, is to use our resources, energy and experience to stop them. Our concern is directed today to those who suffer from the PNL-PSD regime," Drula said.

The president of USR also criticized the Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, who is "a prominent exponent of a disaster government, a man who does not care about infrastructure", Drula emphasised.

"A man who is not capable to carry out this mandate as a minister. (...) He managed to stop - and this is the only project through which he was drawing money from the PNRR - the A3 motorway, to terminate and cancel more than he gave into work, and to shield in the state apparatus incompetents and party cronies," considers Drula.