Alin Tișe announces bid for National Liberal Party leadership before a Congress date is set

Candidacy announced on Facebook

Alin Tișe, president of the Cluj County Council, announced on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, that he will stand for the presidency of the National Liberal Party (PNL) at the party's next Congress. He made the announcement in a Facebook post in which he said the party is heading in the wrong direction and must again become one where its members count. He argued that those who win elections should have a heavy say and that decisions should be taken jointly. In the same post he wrote that the party belongs to the members, mayors, county council presidents, parliamentarians and local organisations that built it, and he presented his bid as a result of support from fellow liberals.

“I am not running for a position. I am running to restore to PNL the strength to decide, to build and to govern.”

No Congress date yet

G4Media reports that the party has not scheduled a Congress to elect its new leadership and that no timeframe for one has been set. Tișe nonetheless presents himself as the best-placed person to lead the party and says he has the backing of his PNL colleagues. Mediafax and Adevărul describe the bid as a candidacy for the future Congress without naming a date. Digi24 likewise reported that he announced his candidacy for the next congress.

Little visible backing

G4Media reports that no liberal publicly endorsed Tișe beyond likes and shares from three or four members of the Cluj local organisation, since most Cluj liberals sit in the camps of Emil Boc, Daniel Buda and Mircea Abrudean. According to the same report, national figures from the group opposed to Ilie Bolojan had not shared or endorsed the announcement. MEP Rareș Bogdan, whom G4Media describes as a friend of Tișe, did not name him the platform's official candidate in an interview with Digi24. Bogdan said the platform has several would-be candidates, including Adrian Veștea, president of the Brașov County Council. G4Media sources also say Bolojan is preparing Mircea Abrudean, president of the Senate, to run for the Cluj County Council presidency at the next local elections.

Bolojan rivalry and the 2025 vote

Tișe is one of the critics of Ilie Bolojan. G4Media reports that at the summer 2025 congress that voted Bolojan in as PNL president, Tișe failed to win a first vice-president post, although county leaders from the North-West had agreed in advance to back him. Senator Nicoleta Pauliuc took that post, and Tișe received the fewest votes among the candidates for the four first vice-president posts, about 400 according to G4Media. He then began attacking the leadership from several directions. HotNews and Digi24 report that in July, after the congress that reconfirmed Bolojan, Tișe set up a liberal-conservative platform inside the party and called on colleagues to join it.

Platform and stated goals

Tișe says he has been a PNL member for 25 years and that, with the backing of colleagues in the Cluj organisation and through direct votes, he has won five electoral contests: four terms as Cluj County Council president and one as senator. He describes himself as a lawyer and entrepreneur and says he has never run with PSD support or in an alliance with it. Among his stated goals are internal elections running from the base upward, continuity for the projects of mayors and county council presidents, and a party that includes liberals who disagree with him. He also says the party must recover its identity, its electorate and its ability to represent the Romanian right.

“PNL, by ourselves! Without dependence on USR, PSD or any other party.”