Romania: bitter enemies in new governing coalition
The Romanian parliament elected the former defence minister and retired general Nicolae Ciucă as the new prime minister on Thursday. His predecessor Florin Cîțu was removed from office in October. Ciucă heads a three-party coalition of his national liberal PNL, the social democratic PSD and the Hungarian party UDMR. The two major coalition partners, the PNL and the PSD, were bitter opponents until only recently.
Frustration will grow
The biggest opposition to the new coalition will come from the people themselves, G4Media.ro predicts:
“The real enemy of General Nicolae Ciucă and his political army is the growing frustration in society. It is difficult to manage, if not downright impossible. More and more voices are rightly accusing President Iohannis of treason. A year after the parliamentary elections, the head of state brought the PSD back to power and had a coalition formed which the Romanians did not vote for. ... This frustration is only set to increase, above all because the institutions that are supposed to create checks and balances are either politically manipulated or have been paralysed for years.”
A national disaster
Rather than reforms, the country can expect the nepotism to get even worse, writes the weekly paper Revista 22:
“An analysis of the current cabinet, which has been needlessly inflated to 21 ministries just to satisfy the lust for power of the PSD's and PNL's political clientele, reveals an unhealthy blend of corruption, incompetence and propaganda. ... This is a predatory government created to divvy up resources, not to implement reforms which will now be postponed for at least three years. All the promises and commitments made before the elections [in December 2020] have been broken, and the result is one of the worst - and potentially most corrupt - governments ever. A national disaster.”
Ciucă not a man of many words
The curt statements of the new prime minister Nicolae Ciucă are a refreshing change in Romanian politics, Krónika believes:
“When asked why his National Liberals (PNL) had entered into a coalition with the Social Democrats (PSD), the former general replied tersely: Because the presidency had decided so. ... If Ciucă's appearances as prime minister remain as taciturn, he could well become really popular in Romania. ... In the next year and a half, Ciucă's melancholy demeanour could be a positive contrast to Romania's previous political style, which was characterised by quarrelsome hysteria and cheap showmanship.”