What's behind Dragnea's murder conspiracy tale?
In a televised interview Liviu Dragnea, the leader of Romania's ruling party PSD, has claimed that he was the target of a murder attempt in 2017 and implied that US billionaire George Soros was behind it. According to prosecutors, however, the case was never reported. Newspapers in Romania doubt the veracity of the allegation and wonder what Dragnea could be up to.
Dragnea following in Erdoğan's footsteps
There is a strategy behind Dragnea's allegations regarding a conspiracy to murder him, Adevărul concludes:
“Some say that Liviu Dragnea has gone crazy. If that were the case, the party, which has already destroyed several of its leaders, would have deposed him long ago. What we are seeing these days is not the actions of a crazy person, but a new chapter in a carefully thought-out plan to subvert the trust of the people at all levels, since the party no longer has any control over them. ... Despite the aversion we continually express towards foreigners, as far as the discourse of our state is concerned we closely resemble other countries. [Venezuela's president] Nicolás Maduro recently reported an attempt to murder him, and not so long ago Erdoğan did the same.”
Mafioso ruining Romania's future
Business journalist Moise Guran rails against Dragnea's latest ruse in Blog Biziday:
“We are losing time and getting old while we wait for you to build motorways, create decent jobs and provide development possibilities and good education so that our children stop leaving the country. But instead you rob us senseless! In the few cases in which you are caught, you change the laws so that you get off scot-free, and beat up citizens who oppose you. If you are being followed, Dragnea, then call the police like any normal person would do. But you're not a normal person, you're a mafioso!”