*Liberal Catalin Predoiu on PSD reform: ‘It is not a modern Left, it’s caviar Socialism’
The Prime-Vice-President of PNL, Catalin Predoiu, said on Sunday that, between Victor Ponta and Liviu Dragnea there were no relations of friendship or collegiality and that, most likely, we would see ‘political evidence’ of the actual relationship the two had. He also stressed that ‘Ponta has lost he support of the party and the control over the Government’.
‘His administration no longer functions, the premier of Romania is not received anywhere in the civilised world, because power fights are taking place in PSD. This is the true face and modernity of PSD. Modernity consists in the fact that they are no longer attacking each other openly and are smiling to the public and deal with their fight over power, over advantages coming with the control of public budget in the backstage. This is the meaning of the exchange of lines between Ponta and Dragnea’, Predoiu said, according to Agerpres. In his opinion, Liviu Dragnea should withdraw the political support for the Victor Ponta Government and ‘they should both quit politics’.
‘It is impossible, because PSD has in its political DNA totalitarianism in a guised form. Liviu Dragnea’s addressing the labouring people, the people who create value and intellectuals is tricky. (…) It is clear that this is the hypocrisy of the PSD heads. This is not a modern, reformed left, this is caviar Socialism, (…) The PSD leaders display the image of a pair of shows with holes in the soles while spending their holidays in Brazil, Dubai or other places where no regular person in this country can afford to travel (…)’, Predoiu further said.
‘He added that the Social-Democrats should have stood up, recollect themselves and apologised to Romanians for several things: the state corruption during the various PSD administrations, the fraudulent privatisations, the patenting of vote theft and electoral bribe, the ordinance legalising the theft of mayors, blocking the vote of Romanians in the 2014 presidential election, blocking the distance voting, repeated attacks on the judiciary, loss of eight billion euro from European funds, bankruptcy of hundreds of thousand of SMEs, our isolation in Europe and the failure of the Ponta Government with R. Moldova.
‘The moment of silence observed during the PSD congress proves the maximum hypocrisy of a cynical and hypocritical politician. It was, in reality, an offence to the intelligence of Romanians’, said the PNL Prime Vice-President, according to Mediafax.
He also said the PSD election had proved to be a mere swap of power between defendants, convicts or acquitted persons, a congress of ‘the friends of Justice’.
‘Following the bargaining, the convict will take over the centre, the rest of the barons will keep their fiefs. The defendant will be kept, for now, in the showcase of the Government, until the new chief of PSD has managed to distribute the bones of power among the new lieutenants. The bargain shows that PSD follows the model of political feudalism it introduced to politics after 1989. More seriously, PSD, the follower of PCR, with its model of political feudalism, suffocates central and local administration, deconcentrated public institutions, state-owned companies that are almost drowning in corruption’, the Liberal also said.
In his view, PSD cannot modernise itself, as it does not have the mentality required for modernisation.
‘The chief of PSD and the premier of PSD are thousand times richer than those they claim to be representing. Hey did not make a fortune in the private sector, from a profession or a business, but in poorly paid public offices, but with access to the budget, to the money of the Romanian citizens. What guarantees can Dragnea and Ponta offer? The guarantee that they will become even richer, that the motorways will continue to collapse and no one will pay for that, that the pillage of state-owned enterprises will continue’, the PNL representative also said.
Adrian Nastase, first reaction on PSD reform topic
In a blog posting titled ‘PSD “Reform”’, former premier Adrian Nastase claims that certain PSD leaders exhibit the temptation of periodically picking up the idea of “reform,” and that some believe it means rewriting history and dealing with issues of the past. At the same time, he points out that he was not invited at PSD’s Extraordinary Congress meeting on Sunday.
“Some PSD leaders show a certain temptation to periodically pick up the idea of “reform.” Unfortunately, some believe that “reform” means rewriting history and dealing with topics of the past. I believe the topics of “modernization” are connected with the dangers and opportunities of globalization, with the limits of capitalism, with the disappearance of national capital, with the need to urbanize rural areas, with the redrawing of the spheres of influence in the region we live in, with the invasion of hyper-market services each of which “kills off” 30 small-size local shops, with the disappearance of industry, with the inability to irrigate crops while 4-5 large foreign intermediaries control grain crop prices. Are there solutions? At any rate, they should be sought.
The horses in the picture are running because they are afraid of something or because they want to get SOMEWHERE. Everyone can interpret the picture as he/she pleases.
P.S. Several journalists have asked me why I was absent from the PSD Congress. The answer is simple – I wasn’t invited,” Nastase pointed out.
Elena Udrea about Liviu Dragnea:‘He has never been even investigated into, while they make dozens of cases against me’
Ex-Development and Tourism Minister and ex-PMP President Elena Udrea expressed her surprise on Facebook on Sunday to the way in which the Opposition, with the exception of PMP and ex-President Traian Basescu, reacted to what had been said during the extraordinary PSD congress and said she was actually inclined to find PM Victor Ponta to be right.
‘I am surprised to see that there is not even one reaction from the opposition to the PSD congress and to what was said there, except Traian Basescu and PMP. I can say opposition came from Sturzu, with his proposal o invalidate the election of Liviu Dragnea because of the communist, undemocratic character of the event where he had received over 90% of the vote as single candidate… Not a word from the big PNL, from M10… Is there still an opposition in this country? What is the opinion of the right-wing electorate? I find Ponta right: the only opponent is
Traian Basescu… P.S. Even Ion Iliescu criticised the lack of competition in the election of Dragnea!!!:)))’ Udrea states.
‘So we are living some really odd times. I wonder what the representatives of the world’s big democracies in Bucharest think of this’ the MP also says regarding the extraordinary congress of PSD where he Social-Democrats elected their new leaders.
Udrea also says the National Anticorruption Department prosecutors have not investigated into the new president of PSD, Liviu Dragnea, so far and that it is ‘a take over of power from politicians by removing those who oppose by an occult group of generals, using justice institutions and the anti-corruption fad’.
‘If Dragnea stole or not, with Tel Drum or by different means, it is not my business, it is DNA’s business. But here is the problem. He has never been at least investigated into, while they have made and are still making dozens of cases against me. Do you believe the generalised practice in Romania of charging a commission from companies that make money from contracts with the state did not exist exactly at Teleorman County Council? Or do you think that, how much there may have been at the Ministry of Development, it disappeared when Mr. Dragnea got there?’ Udrea sates on Facebook.
Băsescu: Ponta still a liar. 2012 referendum vote was fixed
Traian Basescu commented on Facebook on Sunday Victor Ponta’s statements during the PSD congress regarding the 2012 referendum, saying that the premier was lying again when he invoked the vote of the people and reminded that the vote had been ‘fixed’.
In a posting with the title ‘Ponta still Ponta, Ponta still a liar!’, the ex-president tells the prime-minister that the vote in the summer of 2012 for his dismissal was defrauded and came after a series of procedures that blocked the operation of the Constitutional Court.
‘During the PSD congress, in a deceitful speech on his own achievements in the Government, Victor Viorel was complaining that the vote in the referendum for the dismissal of the president in the summer of 2012 had not been validated, claiming that to him the vote of the people was more important than institutions and laws. I am not going to remind him that he is taking pride in a vote fixed after procedures that had blocked the operation of the CCR’, Traian Basescu states.
He also refers to the presidential election, where the Diaspora was prevented from voting and says that the failure to adopt the distance voting law proves the ‘respect’ Ponta shows to the electorate.
‘If he has so much respect for the vote of Romanians, how can he explain that, together with the gang around him, blocked the right to vote in the 2014 presidential election? Maybe it was still out of love for Romanians and their vote that he had not promoted the law to have a 300 seat Parliament according to the result of a referendum validated by CCR. Or one last proof of his respect for the vote of Romanians, what are the whereabouts of the distance voting bill? So where is the respect for the people and its vote?’ the former president asks.
PSD Diaspora President: Masonry – intelligence services cooperative has taken over PSD
PSD’s Congress meeting on Sunday sparked several reactions of revolt. The party’s internal elections were contested not just by the president of PSD’s Youth Organization but also by the president of PSD Diaspora, MP Catalin Radulescu. The latter stated that PSD has been taken over “by the Masonry – intelligence services cooperative” which “has acted like ordinary mafia.”
“I want to thank all my friends and their branches for backing me today for the position of PSD Vice President and for giving me almost 1,000 of the 3,800 votes. (…) Today I saw I was appreciated, however the “Masonry – intelligence services cooperative,” a group of 10 persons that held the leadership of the Lower Chamber and now of the party, acted like ordinary mafia, sending notes within the meeting hall and asking for those who are not Yes-men to be struck out of the list: Constantin Nita, Mihai Fifor, Catalin Radulescu, Adrian Dobre and Nicolae Banicioiu (who says he was eventually elected because of the risk of a media scandal). I saw that the game was ugly and suburban, mafia-like, not allowing the delegates to choose, handing over to the presidents of party branches voting ballots in envelopes (certainly more than the delegates of those who had to steal). I am not angry but I am disappointed with the despicable way in which elections are taking place in my party, PSD. At the same time, today I’ve understood that lying is highly held among my party colleagues and I assure them that by electing persons some of whom have the only quality of being informers and by pushing aside valuable people, presidents of county branches, this only serves to create an even bigger split within the party. Apart from this, they may cry not long from now,” Radulescu’s Facebook outburst reads.
