Former PNL chief Crin Antonescu tears into Ilie Bolojan's extraordinary congress as 'the congress of traitors'

A congress and its aftermath

The National Liberal Party held its extraordinary congress on Sunday, 21 June, confirming Ilie Bolojan's grip on the party. Within minutes of the closing, former party president Crin Antonescu published a fiery Facebook post that set the tone for a wave of internal criticism.

“In 36 years I have never seen anything more suited to the term 'betrayal' than today's extraordinary PNL congress. I have never seen so much imposture, shamelessness, baseness and, in a word, so much betrayal.”

Antonescu's post, titled 'Congresul trădătorilor' (The traitors' congress), was echoed later in a television appearance on Antena 3. Other party figures, including Alina Gorghiu, Rareș Bogdan and Hubert Thuma, also voiced discontent.

The charges of historical revisionism

Antonescu accused the Bolojan team of 'falsifying history in the purest communist style'. He pointed to the absence of key PNL figures from the event. Former prime minister Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, under whom Romania joined the EU, was not invited, and neither were former prime ministers Florin Cîțu or Nicolae Ciucă – the party's most recent presidential candidate.

“They cut us out of the photo like Oana Gheorghiu did with Nicușor. Tăriceanu did not exist. I did not exist. Florin Cîțu and Nicolae Ciucă did not exist.”

He also mocked the speech of the newly elected secretary general, Robert Sighiartău, calling him 'a ball boy from the golden age of Băsism', referring to the era of former president Traian Băsescu.

The house metaphor and the 'securisto-sorosist' network

During his television interview, Antonescu compared the PNL to an old house occupied by strangers, with Bolojan as the former owner who handed them the key. He identified these 'strangers' as a 'securisto-sorosist network', a term he used to link the party's direction to former intelligence chief Florian Coldea and former anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi, although he noted he could not say if the two individuals were directly involved.

“Bolojan made the games for this securisto-sorosist network, the Coldea-Kovesi network. I don't know if Ms Kovesi and Coldea are personally implicated, but this is the culture, the philosophy, these are the people to whom Bolojan handed over the key.”

Bolojan's team and its critics

Antonescu described Bolojan as a 'catastrophic prime minister' with 'no thought, no idea and no feeling for the concrete person' – whether entrepreneur, employee, pensioner, pupil or student. He claimed Bolojan's selection criteria were 'yesterday's Băsism, today's Sorosism, and mediocrity', with the exception of long-serving figure Dan Motreanu, whose 'reformist' image he ridiculed.

Alina Gorghiu, who supports the designated prime minister Adrian Veștea, said on Facebook that Bolojan 'is afraid', while Rareș Bogdan warned of the 'userisation of the PNL', drawing a parallel with the Save Romania Union (USR) and its grassroots movements. The congress nevertheless produced a decisive victory for Bolojan, confirming his control over the party.