How USR Became the Party of Happy People

On Sunday, members of USR’s Political Committee voted to form the United Right Alliance, consisting of USR, PMP, and Forța Dreptei. They also announced a joint list for the European Parliament elections. The event made many politicians happy.

Only Elena Lasconi, who was initially placed at the top of the list for the European Parliament elections by the USR leader and then just as arbitrarily removed, spoiled the mood for the guests by raising a series of serious issues related to the internal democracy that has been systematically trampled on in recent times.

Euro-MP Vlad Gheorghe was also deeply unhappy, behaving as if he were on his way to AUR, because he was not allowed to enter the USR event by bodyguards, but especially because he lost his place on the list.

The rest were in good spirits, everyone was happy.

Cătălin Drulă is happy that the party he leads precisely, mathematically, without debates or nuances, executes the orders from above like virus-free software. More and more USR voices – just programming errors – accuse him of having installed a vertical power structure and killing internal democracy. But where has it been seen that a computer program tells an IT engineer what to do?

Nicușor Dan is happy that USR, the party he resigned from in 2017, did not find another solution for the mayoralty of Bucharest and supports him for a new term.

Dan Barna, the loser of the 2019 presidential elections, is happy that he opens the list of European Parliament elections and has a warm seat in Brussels for the next five years. Cătălin Drulă is happy again that he is getting rid of Dan Barna.

Vlad Voiculescu, the former Minister of Health who is under investigation in the Covid-19 vaccine criminal case, is happy that even though he does not have any major political achievements apart from the timely move from PLUS to USR, life has offered him a pleasant surprise and here he is, in second place, eligible, on the list of happy people on their way to Brussels.

Eugen Tomac is happy because regardless of what happens to PMP in court, whether he or Cristian Diaconescu wins the fight for the leadership of the legacy left by Traian Băsescu, his political career continues in the capital of Europe with a new term as a European Parliament member.

Ludovic Orban is happy that he has managed the political feat of returning to the forefront through the nuclear fusion with USR, a party that opposed his nomination as prime minister with all its might. Cătălin Drulă stated in November 2020 that USR opposes Orban’s nomination as head of the Government because he „seriously failed” the test of honesty and loyalty (…) through lies about USR”.

Three years later, Orban passed Drulă’s test and here he is, smiling broadly in the photo of happiness together with the United Right! At least he’s still getting elected as a member of parliament.

Happy are the poor in spirit.

With all the United Right, the party is languishing in the polls at around 14%, far below the historic score it achieved four years ago.

How did an opposition party come to be ridiculed even by the representatives of the power, the irony being that it does not really oppose? The PSD’s Sorin Grindeanu recently reproached them that USR is „on airplane mode” and that in this way they are leaving AUR to occupy the entire field. Generously, PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu said recently about Drulă that he „can do more”. What could be more humiliating than for the PSD to start cheering you on?

The most visible explanation for USR’s failure in opposition is the image of happiness described above: the party’s leaders have become self-sufficient. They are content with little for the party if it means a lot to them.

USR has become institutionalized and functions almost like the rest of the parties, even though it has always promised that it will be different. The party’s vitality was lost along the way after the party entered Parliament, went through a short stint in government, and then focused on internal power struggles.

Decisions are made from top to bottom, opposition is done more on Facebook and through press releases, and when „their own” are investigated by prosecutors, the case is political. There is little left of the slogan „No criminals in public office” and the fight for justice. Disappointed, many have left the party or given up activism.

USR leaders complain about media boycotts and conspiracies from the services, but nothing can still justify the lack of political imagination that the others do not lack.

Today, the party hungry for power, which consumes almost all its energy on the street is called AUR. The dangerous rise of the far-right party, with its anti-EU discourse and narratives convenient for Russia, has led the PSD-PNL coalition to seriously consider merging the European Parliament elections with the local elections to further cut down on George Simion’s momentum.

However, if this happens, USR would also be hit hard because, like AUR, it does not have much of a network of mayors that PSD and PNL will mobilize to maximize their electoral results.

In case of merging the elections, the party of happy people risks falling back below the psychological threshold of 10%. Little for the party, enough for those now mechanically operating USR’s software.