The Liberals have lied to themselves for six months about Cîțu. Will they collectively lie to themselves about Ciucă next?

President Klaus Iohannis is just executing a new long-prepared shot, like a golf swing. It took him about two years to get here.

The installation of Nicolae Ciucă as head of the government is an old plan of his, put on hold because of Ludovic Orban’s refusal to resign as PNL leader.

Florin Cîțu was the fallback solution in President Iohannis’ fight with Orban, an uninspired sidetrack, a political accident, a mere pawn out of control after he was elected leader of the PNL on 25 September 2021 following a carefully staged Congress.

„After almost half a year of internal civil war, the Liberals will elect a leader on Saturday that they will also be forced to replace in a few months’ time”, I wrote on 24 September last year, in a text published the day before the Romexpo Congress.

His replacement took place six months later. The same liberals who voted and endorsed him then are now ruthlessly ousting him. Florin Cîțu never seems to have been President Iohannis’ real choice, his long-term plan.

The man with the worst hand at politicians preferred Nicolae Ciucă, the perfect operator, a man with a sense of hierarchy, a general with a good reputation with his Western partners, even though he has no connection whatsoever with politics.

Just as the Liberals lied to themselves six months ago and elected Florin Cîțu to be their president, so they will lie to themselves again with Nicolae Ciucă at the congress scheduled for April 10.

Neither the general has won any political battle, he has not passed any electoral test, no one has ever voted for him and he has burned every possible political career step. Like Cîțu, Ciucă came from a completely different world and was catapulted straight to the top of power without any political or administrative experience.

And in his CV we find a stain, not necessarily of alcohol, but of plagiarism. To a certain extent, Cîțu and Ciucă look almost the same, two political mediocrities, vulnerable, artificial creations, people who came out of nowhere and were put in charge of Romania.

No matter how much they fool themselves again, liberals will soon come to realize that even the rigid Ciucă, cannot lift the party up.

But we’ll find out more about the Liberals’ new political star in the near future. A month after being elected PNL president, Ciucă will choose his leadership team. That’s when we’ll know who he’s joining forces with, who his real political partners are and not only that.

Also in the PNL there is now intense discussion about what Nicolae Ciucă will do when his term as Prime Minister ends in May 2023? Will he hand over the position of head of government, as agreed in the coalition, to PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu?

And if he leaves the government, what will he do next? Will the Liberals put him in charge of the Senate, so he becomes interim president of Romania in case Klaus Iohannis becomes NATO Secretary-General?

And if it comes to that, who could be the PNL candidate for the presidency? How will the PNL and the PSD, which today lead Romania together in a coalition government, enter the 2024 elections: as opponents or on common lists? Will the grand government coalition turn into a grand political alliance? Will Marcel Ciolacu continue as Prime Minister and do everything he can to ensure that Nicolae Ciucă reaches the presidency?

Will we see a new great sham, like the PNL congress, only extended to the coalition level? Is there to be a new collective lie, a new massive mystification supported by almost all the press which has been bought with millions of euros of public money, given in the form of generous subsidies to the big political parties?

Of course, all this is now mere speculation, working scenarios, but there are so many variables on the table that it is hard to imagine the long-term political future of a character like Nicolae Ciucă.

What is certain is that through their leaders today, through their profile as people of the system, interchangeable, identical in their mediocrity, lacking their own agenda, the parties have become almost irrelevant. In the exercise of power, they matter less and less. The civil administration has become dangerously militarised.

Real power must be sought elsewhere, behind the curtain.

Translated from Romanian by Ovidiu H.