EXCLUSIVE Who are the men around ex PM Viorica Dancila’s new political party NOI / She baptised the child of the future deputy secretary general

„Nation People Together” (NOI), the new party of former Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, has in its leadership young intellectuals who have never been in politics and who have not been involved in public scandals. The hard core of the centre-left party comes from the Pitesti area, and five of the eight members of the top structure are women.

In her speech at yesterday’s Congress, where she was elected president of the NOI, Dancila justified her re-entry on the political scene by the fact that „Everything is collapsing around us”, which she wants to change, pointing to her achievements as prime minister during 2018-2019. Viorica Dăncilă’s arrival in NOI also brought the first nepotism in the party’s history: she is godmother to the child of the future deputy secretary general.

The NOI’s leadership structure consists of eight people. After Dăncilă comes Francesco Ionel Șerban, a tax consultant from Pitesti, who became executive president. The five vice-presidents are Bogdan Petrescu (IT consultant, Cluj-Napoca), Răzvan Gabriel Gogoț (lawyer, Bucharest), Iulia Elena Hirică (lecturer, University of Bucharest), Iulia Harasim (research chemist, Bucharest) and Alexandra Bolocan (doctor and lecturer at „Carol Davila” University of Medicine). Cornelia Baloș, an economist and physiotherapist from Pitesti, was elected Secretary General.

At the time of the founding of this party by the Bucharest Tribunal, in October 2021, and in its first public appearances, NOI was also represented by Gabriel Florin Ghiță (scientific researcher and university teacher, Pitesti), Silvia Carmina Braia (economist, Pitesti), Daniela Ionela Crasan (psychologist, Pitesti) and Cătălin Spătaru (engineer, Brasov).

Executive President Francesco Ionel Șerban explains the higher number of people from Pitesti in the party by the fact that a group of locals had the initial idea of forming „an aggregator of ideas, a forum, and then thinking of a party”. Șerban claims that Dăncilă was contacted only in February 2022, a few months after the court ruling, the reason being that NOI wanted to benefit from someone with political clout.

A rumour circulating in the political circles linking the former head of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), Teodor Meleșcanu, to the idea of setting up this party, and Viorica Dăncilă’s entry into politics, was denied by Șerban who, however, immediately added that „we appreciate him (Meleșcanu) very much”. The former foreign minister joined the PPUSL, a party controlled by Dan Voiculescu, in 2020.

At the end of March, Colonel Radu Țipișcă, former Secretary of State for Emergency Management under Prime Minister Dăncilă, joined the NOI. At the time, Țipișcă fell in love with his secretary, Andreea Buiuc, and the two subsequently married and have a child together who, in August 2021, was christened by Dăncilă herself.

„Mr Țipișcă will probably be the party’s deputy secretary general,” Francesco Ionel Șerban told G4Media. With this appointment, NOI enters the Romanian political „world” with a military man with a special pension at its head.

G4Media investigations indicate that, apart from Țipișcă, none of the above has held high public office or has been a candidate in local or parliamentary elections. This was also confirmed by Vice-President Iulia Hirică during a speech at yesterday’s Congress, which was attended by around 250 members.

It was also Hirica who invited Dancila to give her speech to the participants, a praise for her could indicate a possible approach of NOI in the foreign policy: „We all remember the speech of 3 October 2018 in the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, when the Prime Minister gave us a real lesson of national pride. Quote: „I am not here to give an account. I came because I value and respect you. But I ask for the same respect and esteem for the Romanian people I represent.”

The statement is part of a speech given by Ms Dăncilă during a debate on respect for the rule of law in Romania, the reason for calling the debate being, among other things, the amendments to the penal codes and the August 10 violence against protesters in Bucharest.

Subsequently, the European Parliament adopted a non-legislative resolution on the rule of law in Romania by 473 votes to 151 with 40 abstentions. The text affirmed MEPs’ „deep concern” about the reform of judicial and criminal legislation in Romania and condemned the „violent and disproportionate intervention of police forces during protests in Bucharest” in August 2018.

This controversial excerpt was previously invoked on his Facebook account by President Șerban, who is also in charge of the party’s Council of Projects and Strategies: „The same stateperson, perhaps the only one in the last decades who had the audacity to give us a real lesson of national pride and dignity at the Strasbourg moment on October 3, 2018.”

„We are not a sovereignist party, but a pro-European party and one that campaigns for the respect of the commitments our country has on the external front. We will be more attentive to the messages we will propagate in the future on this issue,” said Francesco Ionel Șerban, NOI executive president.

Commenting on this speech, Liviu Dragnea, president of the PSD, the party to which Dancila belonged at the time, said: ‘I would like to congratulate the Prime Minister from the bottom of my heart for today’s speech, for the position she took, for the answers she gave, for the dignity with which she defended her country. (…) I really felt proud to be Romanian.”

Edited for English by Ovidiu H.