One of the most vocal presences in PNL, the leader of the Timis branch, Nicolae Robu, unsatisfied by the result obtained in the parliamentary elections, proposed since the last Monday, after he found out the painful score of PNL, the resignation of the branch Presidents who got under 30%, including his resignation.
Robu kept his word, and on Thursday evening, in a press release, he announced since morning that he decided to resign from office, telling this to his family and to several close persons. He added that he will remain President until the national leadership of the party will announce an interim President, according to News.ro.
“The results obtained by PNL in its whole, and by the PNL Timis Branch in subsidiary – even if it won the fifth position in the country considering the number of votes, and the 11th position in the country considering the percentage – have made me propose on Monday, through a press release, a series of actions. One of them refers to the resignation of the Presidents of the branches that obtained less than 30%, therefore including the undersigned. However, none of my proposals have been agreed”, Robu stated.
“This morning (on Thursday morning – e.n.), I announced my family and several close persons that I’ve decided to resign as President of PNL Timis. Throughout the day, I was informed that, at the initiative of the Mayor of Sannicolau Mare, a group of around 20 to 25 colleagues gathered at Club 21 to prepare a pressure on me in order to make me resign. I have decided not to announce anything in the plenum, to see what colleagues I have to face in my beloved party. When I saw them, I’ve decided to go further” added the PNL President.
Nicolae Robu also stated that he will remain a simple member of the party and that he’ll ensure the leadership of PNL Timis until the national leaders will nominate an interim President.
“I will remain a simple member of PNL, I will cease any activity inside the party, as long as the party will have such members as the Mayor of Sannicolau Mare. Of course, I will continue to act as President until the national leadership will announce that my term has ceased, possibly at the same time with nominating an interim President, and I hope this will happen as soon as possible. The decision is irrevocable” Robu concluded.
According to sources from inside PNL, the following names are circulated for the interim President of the Timis branch of the Liberals: County Counselor Marian Vasile, the new Deputy Marilen Pirtea, the current Rector of the West university of Timisoara, as well as Ovidiu Draganescu, former Prefect of Timis and former President of PNL Timis.
Liberal sources previously stated that Nicolae Robu announced in the meeting of the County Permanent Bureau, that he resigns as President of PNL Timis and that he will not run anymore for a new seat as mayor in 2020.
According to the quoted sources, a number of Liberals asked the President of PNL Timis, Nicolae Robu, to resign, in the meeting of the County Permanent bureau.
According to the quoted sources, Nicolae Robu announced his resignation, even saying that he will not run for a new seat as mayor in 2020.
Nicolae Robu joined PNL in 2008, and he also leads the PNL Timis Branch since then, being at his second term as Mayor.
PNL Vice President: We made a lot of mistakes in the electoral campaign
After Robu, another leader of the party highlights the party’s mistake, analyzing the blunders that lead to the party’s failure in the parliamentary elections.
Vice President Mircea Hava stated over the weekend that Liberals “walked the bear through the woods, when the bear wanted to go to the grassland”. And when he says “the bear”, he refers to PM Dacian Ciolos. At the same time, the Liberal honestly admits that the Liberal Party could have got a much lower score in the parliamentary elections.
“The electoral campaign is a game of those who know to promise. We made a serious mistake with the bear walking through the woods, when the bear wanted to go to the grassland. Mr. Ciolos was walked everywhere, when he wanted a totally different thing. It’s true that he never said what he wants, but that’s something else. We were very wrong in these matters, and that costed us. And I am honestly telling you, it didn’t cost us as much as it should” stated Mircea Hava, the leader of PNL Alba, one of the three branches that succeeded to win the elections in the county.
“People vote for hope, for the better, and it’s hard to convince them that what some people try to offer are only stories and lies, most of them. Now we’ll see monthly what they’ll do of what they promised.
The strategist of the PNL campaign: These elections come after one year in which Liberals were neither on one side or the other, they didn’t govern, but they also weren’t in opposition. It’s the most ingrate situation
In an interview for ziare.com, the strategist of the PNL campaign, Felix Tataru (photo), claims that the result obtained by PNL in the parliamentary elections is related to the party’s status, which is not integrated, as well as to the circumstances that the party placed itself in an ingrate situation in the last year.
“These elections come after one year in which Liberals were neither on one side or the other, they didn’t govern, but they also weren’t in opposition. It’s the most ingrate situation. Where from they should find the energy to defend themselves from PSD and then to attack? The most important thing in an electoral campaign is the energy. But since it was in this situation, PNL didn’t have the needed energy to fight until the end, stated Felix Tataru. He also said that he believes that “the biggest mistake that PNL has settled in these elections is that it didn’t make the unification congress before the start of the electoral campaign”.
Felix Tataru thinks that PNL’s biggest handicap in this campaign was the credibility. “The difficulty of being credible represented an obstacle that was hard to overcome. They came after a lot of events, especially the experience with USL which was hard to be justified”.
He says that a powerful leadership can overcome such a handicap. “Unfortunately, there were a lot of leaders who instead of staying in Bucharest, went in the territory, and that was felt. Their absence from the TV screens was felt. On the other hand, no PNL leader had a trust rate over the party’s rate. At the same time, while in PSD Liviu Dragnea and Victor Ponta have a lower trust rate than the party, Gabriela Firea is above PSD’s trust rate, and they used Gabriela Firea very well in the campaign. If we compare the trust scores of the first ten PNL leaders with the first PSD leaders, we will conclude that Liberals got a good percentage in the elections” stated Felix Tataru for ziare.com.
He also commented the strategy used by PSD in the campaign, which he appreciated to be “lethal” for liberals. “I believe that this strategy of demonizing the technocrat Government on the one hand, and to relate Dacian Ciolos to Soros was lethal. Of course, I believe that these attacks were at the limit of the moral rules. They have gone too far pretty much. PNL wouldn’t have accepted to promote messages of this kind and so harsh. I don’t think it would have been an appropriate strategy for the party’s campaign, as well as I think it wouldn’t have been appropriate for Dacian Ciolos. PNL’s image vectors have tried to defend the Government’s achievements somehow, to dismantle the attacks with arguments. During the campaign, one year have passed since Dacian Ciolos was appointed as Prime-Minister, and this opportunity was used to show what he did during this year” Felix Tataru also stated.
As for publishing the video with Alina Gorghiu trying to convince a child to vote for PNL, Felix Tataru confesses that he didn’t understand this move. “There were two moments in this campaign when I wanted to retire, one of them was right after this video was posted on Facebook. I prefer not to talk about the other one. I had to choose between saving my reputation and staying with my client in a difficult moment, and I’m not sorry that I went further. The video was designed by the agency that managed Alina Gorgiu’s image. There were several agencies involved in the campaign. But nobody is telling now that he worked for PNL’s campaign because of the poor result”, Tataru added.
Resigning President of PNL Baia Mare, Ionel Bogdan: “PNL Maramures leadership is dissolved”
PNL Baia Mare President, Ionel Bogdan, announced on Saturday that he resigned from his position, as well as from the PNL Maramures leadership, stating that, as a result of the resignations of several members of BPJ (County Permanent Bureau – e.n.), following the result of the elections, PNL Maramures leadership is dissolved.
“I have resigned today from the leadership of PNL Maramures, together with mayors, county counselors and numerous members of the County Permanent Bureau. I have also resigned from the position of PNL Baia Mare President. In this moment, PNL Maramures leadership is dissolved, and an interim leadership, whose main task will be to organize the internal elections in our organization, will be appointed at the national level, after these resignations en bloc will be acknowledged”, announced Ionel Bogdan on Facebook.
He said that the interim President of PNL Maramures, Mircea Dolha, didn’t resign in the BPJ meeting.
“Unfortunately, the interim President Mircea Dolha didn’t assume the responsibility for the disastrous results recorded by PNL Maramures in these elections, and therefore he didn’t resign, quickly leaving the BPJ meeting”, added Ionel Bogdan.
In a post dated December 15, Ionel Bogdan said that he is “stunned” by the final result of the elections in Maramures. “Is it good that we have the same number of seats with UDMR and USR, or is ti good for NL Maramures that PSD has four seats and PMP has three seats?! I believe it isn’t, and therefore I appreciate that the leadership of PNL Maramures needs to be changed”, according to the post of the Liberal dated December 15.
