PNL elects next chairman on Sunday, PM Ciuca, sole candidate

The extraordinary congress of the National Liberal Party (PNL) will reunite on Sunday, in Parliament, for electing the new chairman, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca being the sole candidate for this position, Agerpres reports.

Ciuca submitted his candidacy for PNL's leadership on Wednesday, on the last day when this was possible.

One day prior, on Tuesday, the Executive Bureau of liberals established an exemption from the party's status regarding seniority, so that Nicolae Ciuca could run for the position of chairman. PNL's status provides that any party member can run for the position of chairman if they had been part of the party for at least 5 years. Ciuca joined the party in October 2020.

"I decided to submit my candidacy for the position of chairman of PNL. I decided to take on this responsibility after a discussion I had with my colleagues and following the analysis that I made upon the entire political situation. (...) PNL is the largest right-wing party, has the best mayors in the country and can become the first party in Romania," the PM declared, after submitting his candidacy for the leadership of the National Liberal Party.

The Prime Minister is running for the position of PNL chairman with the motion titled "United for a stable and strong Romania".

In the document, Ciuca talks about developing and modernizing Romania, arguments for a strong Romania, the fundamentals of rebuilding trust, with the citizen being in the middle of PNL's concerns, reconnection to professionalism, elites and meritocracy, governing by the great coalition.

Furthermore, he also talked about development through PNL's public policies.

Other objectives from the document are aimed at a healthy economy, based on investments and free initiative, the consolidation of a European Romania, supporting diaspora, the efficiency of party mechanisms.

Last week, Florin Citu announced his resignation as the chairman of PNL, after several liberal leaders requested it.

Dan Vilceanu too resigned from position of party secretary general.

In this context, the senior vice chairman Gheorghe Flutur became acting chairman of PNL, and senior vice chairman Lucian Bode became acting secretary general.