Romania's PNL rebels challenge party congress in court as leadership accuses them of 'sabotage'

What the congress decided

On 21 June, the PNL Extraordinary Congress reconfirmed the party’s refusal to form a government with the PSD and introduced a clause expelling any member who voted for or supported such a coalition. The same congress elected a new leadership team under president Ilie Bolojan, first vice-president, secretary general Dan Motreanu and eight vice-presidents on the “Modernizare cu rădăcini” motion. Two days earlier, an extraordinary National Council had laid the procedural groundwork.

The legal offensive

Dissidents led by former ministers Adrian Veștea, Rareș Bogdan, Lucian Bode, Hubert Thuma and senator Alina Gorghiu filed four actions at the Bucharest Tribunal on 26 June, according to court portal data. Two of the lawsuits are emergency petitions (“ordonanță președințială”) asking judges to provisionally suspend the congress’s effects. The other two seek full annulment of the congress decisions, including the exclusion clause, the leadership election and the ratification of the new party statute.

The central legal argument is that the congress acted under a draft statute that had not yet entered into force. Under law 14/2003, statutory changes must be approved by the court and published in the Official Gazette before producing legal effects. The dissidents claim that on 21 June the draft had not even been communicated to the tribunal, leaving the 2025 statute as the only valid one. They also contest the convocation itself, arguing that no genuine emergency justified an extraordinary congress.

The party’s response

In a press release issued on Saturday, the PNL voiced “profound concern” about the handling of an earlier case at the Ilfov Tribunal, where dissidents had already obtained a rapid suspension of a 15 June Political Bureau decision. The party says its lawyers still have no access to the case file ten days after the ruling.

“In a case with major political impact, the court issued a ruling in an extremely short time. Ten days later, PNL lawyers have still not been granted access to the file and could not consult the documents on which the ruling was based. The effective right to defence is seriously affected, and the lack of transparency raises serious questions about respect for the fundamental principles of a fair trial.”

The same statement brands the dissidents as “putschists” who, having lost decisively in the internal vote, are trying to obtain in court what they failed to win in the party’s democratic competition. It warns that every new lawsuit is aimed at discrediting the PNL and serving the party’s political adversaries.

Wider stakes

The infighting risks destabilising Romania’s main centre-right party at a moment when coalition politics are in flux. The anti-PSD line adopted at the congress, and now under legal siege, could reshape the parliamentary arithmetic if overturned. No hearing date has been set for the Bucharest cases, while the parallel Ilfov proceedings continue to draw criticism over speed and opacity.