PNL vice-president accuses President Nicușor Dan of partisanship, says second term support hinges on party ties
Robert Sighiartău, vice-president of Romania's National Liberal Party, sharply criticised President Nicușor Dan on Saturday, accusing him of abandoning campaign promises and siding with the Social Democrats during the political crisis.
Accusations of partisanship
Robert Sighiartău, vice-president and secretary general of the National Liberal Party (PNL), stated during a Digi24 interview on 4 July that President Nicușor Dan had behaved as a partisan actor, not a mediator, throughout the political crisis triggered by the dismissal of the Bolojan government. Sighiartău, who supported Dan in the 2020 Bucharest mayoral race, said he no longer understands the president's decisions, which he believes contradict the right-wing, reformist principles Dan campaigned on.
From my point of view, partisan, in no way a mediator. And I'm telling you this as someone who voted for Nicușor Dan and supported him from the position of PNL secretary general for the position of mayor of the Capital in 2020.
Sighiartău argued that Dan's distancing from the reforms promoted by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan's government became visible when the president failed to criticise the no-confidence motion filed by the AUR party and accepted justice proposals from the PSD-led Ministry of Justice.
Loss of electoral support
The PNL leader claimed that in his first year in office, President Dan lost a large part of his electorate, including PNL supporters, not because of unpopular reforms but because he abandoned the principles he had championed during the campaign.
In the first year of his mandate, Mr Nicușor Dan lost a large base of this electorate, including that of the National Liberal Party, not because of unpopular reforms, but because he supported exactly the opposite of what he supported during the campaign period.
Sighiartău described the president's actions as hostile toward PNL and expressed hope that this stance would end soon.
Conditional support for a second term
Asked about PNL's backing for a potential second presidential term, Sighiartău said it would depend heavily on how Dan reevaluates his relationship with the party and with Ilie Bolojan. He stressed that Dan must demonstrate a genuine desire for partnership with PNL.
The next mandate will depend very much on what Nicușor Dan does and how he reevaluates the situation with the National Liberal Party and including with Ilie Bolojan.
Bolojan's electoral shadow
Sighiartău also reflected on the 2025 presidential election, asserting that Ilie Bolojan would have had the best chance to win, according to sociological studies the party had access to. He suggested that a Bolojan candidacy would have likely blocked Dan's path to the presidency, as the two figures drew from a similar electorate. Bolojan ultimately chose not to run, honouring a prior commitment.
