The PNL leader launches the hypothesis of the risk posed by concentrating the power in the hands of the premier, in a parliamentary republic. He added that the Social-Democrats are unhappy because they are not the only ones in power.
With the Permanent Delegation of PNL due to meet today and make a final decision on organising the congress (which has been announced for February 23-24), PNL leader Crin Antonescu made very hard statements at the end of last week. On the other hand, the mayor of District 1, Andrei Chiliman, whose fate will be decided by the extraordinary congress of PNL, launched his own attacks against Crin Antonescu. The president of PNL said Friday on Realitatea TV that modifying the Constitution so that to adopt the model of a parliamentary republic poses the risk of concentrating power in the hands of the prime minister. According to Antonescu, Romanians are used to having a chief they can easily identify, even if they want to be those who bring him in office, and the constitutional framework distributes power between presidency and government. In the case of a parliamentary republic, the holder of the power is the premier, which also avoids being directly sanctioned by the electorate.“The temptation of establishing a chief, excessively speculated by Traian Basescu, must be solved by us. If we make a parliamentary republic, then all the power, all of it will go to the prime minister. Only then will appear the risk of concentrating the power,” Antonescu said on Realitatea TV, adding that almost all the present prerogatives of the president will add to those already held by the prime minister.Referring to the revision of the Constitution, Crin Antonescu mentioned that the head of the state must keep the majority of his current prerogatives in terms of foreign policy, judiciary and secret services. Speaking about the chief of state, Antonescu added that he admired Basescu for his “exceptional” qualities, which however were of no use for Romania.The president of PNL attacked the Social-Democrats, saying that they are unhappy because they are not alone in the government: “We, liberals, participated in governments with the Christian-Democrats, with the PD (…), the Liberals were always sad because others had more. The Social-Democrats generally are less communicative, but you will see how unhappy some PSD members are because there are others, too, in the government. If Ponta understands that he is the premier of a grand coalition government, not as president of PSD, then PSD will have enough electoral profit if things go well with the government. The topics of the government’s agenda are not about dividing the offices between PSD, PNL and the Conservatives, which have their own ambitions and aspirations,” Crin Antonescu said on Realitatea TV.Antonescu also referred to the recent attacks against him launched by fellow party members like Andrei Chiliman, who called him “traitor” and “against the west.” he mentioned that he was deeply affected by these labels, which he described as stupid, especially as he entered politics because he detested dictators.In his turn, in a press release Chiliman asks his PNL colleagues “to avoid the trap laid by Crin Antonescu,” through the attempt to identify the party with himself. “I ask all my colleagues of the National Liberal Party to avoid being cheated by the manipulations and diversions of the acting president of the party who, in the most Bolshevik style, tries to belie the meaning of my actions in order to support his accusation of <<treason,>>” Chiliman said.
