The day after the Parliament vote that rejected the Government’s investiture, a wave of reactions on social media and comments emerged triumphantly announcing a victory for George Simion and the AUR party, who refused at the last moment to support a PSD executive led by a liberal coupist.
But the extremist party neither won nor lost anything because it was not threatened or targeted for a hostile takeover, as it happened with the PNL.
Simion, most likely well advised by Senator Petrișor Peiu, chose to save the party’s unity by maintaining a strong anti-PSD position.
Despite the seduction attempted by Marian Neacșu, the social-democrat negotiator, and the sweet talk sent by Sorin Grindeanu, an important public supporter of AUR, whose actual support is not 35% as rumored but rather anti-PSD sentiment.
"Nicușor Dan and PSD found themselves in the difficult situation of proposing a government that cannot pass the Parliament vote," wrote Petrișor Peiu, AUR Senator, Monday morning, hours before the legislative consultation.
"The only way they found is to pressure AUR to vote for the Government's investiture. But that would lead to the party's collapse. The logical question is: why would AUR self-destruct to save PSD?" rhetorically asked Senator Peiu on Monday morning.
It should be noted that pressure on AUR was also exerted from within the party, as Deputy Mohammad Murad negotiated intensely with Marian Neacșu, the PSD representative.
George Simion's decision, although spectacular and made in the spotlight, was a logical one, confirming once again, if needed, how toxic the association with PSD has become from an electoral perspective.
Only Sorin Grindeanu and Nicușor Dan show signs that they have not yet understood this.
From savior to enemy
The most spectacular and intense confrontation that has taken place in recent weeks, starting from the dismissal of the Government through a vote of no confidence, was between the President of Romania and the ousted Prime Minister.
Never, in Romanian politics since 1990, has an elected president aimed to hostilely take over another party with the purpose of putting it under the political control of the head of state.
Nicușor Dan was elected with the votes of over 6 million Romanians, on a progressive platform, anti-MAGA, pro-European, anti-fascist, and anti-legionary.
If there are people who have doubts about this, they should review the statements made by the current president during the electoral campaign, who financially supported him, and who his political allies were.
The current president entered the race precisely because Romania had been the victim of an unprecedented hybrid attack by Russia, was pressured by Trump's corrupt power circle to recognize Călin Georgescu, and MAGA, in association with the Kremlin, aimed to impose an extreme-right political regime.
The rupture between the president and the voters
Nicușor Dan was voted by a large part of the 6 million voters precisely to stop a worrying phenomenon triggered after Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin's friend, returned to the White House.
The rupture between the current president and his voters gradually appears as the public opinion witnesses with amazement the decisions and actions of the president.
It all starts with sending back to Parliament the Vexler Law, which increased penalties for fascist and legionary actions, deemed too harsh. It continues with a series of catastrophic statements and decisions that alienate Romania's relations with France, Germany, the UK, as well as with Ukraine and Moldova, without managing to thaw relations even with the US.
Internally, although he publicly supported Ilie Bolojan for the position of prime minister, the relationship with the PNL leader deteriorated even before his nomination to form the government.
Days of suspense and perplexity follow for part of the public opinion, during which Nicușor Dan seeks another candidate for the position of prime minister, outside the one he teamed up with to win the presidential elections.
The shadow supporter of PSD
In short, carried by the wave of victory in the elections, he quickly destroys all bridges with both the PNL and USR, the party he founded.
He does nothing to support the Bolojan Government. Moreover, he becomes a shadow supporter of the alliance between PSD and the Thuma-Predoiu group within the PNL, promising Bolojan's ousting from party leadership and the reestablishment of the USL, a new version under the protective wing of the president.
A major battle between Nicușor Dan and Ilie Bolojan, reaching its climax on the evening of June 22, 2026, was won by the latter, who saved his party from a hostile takeover and isolated the head of state at the Cotroceni Palace, now vulnerable to a series of combinations between parliamentary parties that could dismiss him at any time.
Nicușor Dan finds himself, after a year, in a political situation similar to Iohannis' in December 2024, after the hybrid attack by the Kremlin and influence networks in Romania, aiming to make the Russophile Georgescu president.
A difficult year
Day by day, the growing sentiment both in the country and internationally is that the current president wears a hat too big for him, being unprepared to lead, understand political mechanisms, being childish, vulnerable, and lacking a clear direction.
All presidents of Romania since 1990 have subjugated the parties that brought them to power. To a greater or lesser extent, they have also destroyed them. But all have maintained the appearance of honorability and have not given the green light to coup plotters to destroy another party.
In these tense days, a political commentator posed the following question: What would Sorin Grindeanu, the current PSD president, have said if Nicușor Dan, the head of state, had designated Constantin Toma, the mayor of Buzău, for the position of prime minister?
The mayor, a PSD member until a few weeks ago, was the most vocal critic from within against Sorin Grindeanu and the current social-democratic leadership.
After the statement, at least ironic when placed in context, made by Ilie Bolojan after the consultations yesterday with the president, the feeling cannot be avoided that from now on, Nicușor Dan's political destiny lies in the hands of the PNL leader.
"I also thanked the president because today marks one year since the government, which I still lead, took the oath. It has been a difficult year, in which we have taken measures that were not easy to make, but this government managed to get Romania out of the difficult situation it was in…," stated Ilie Bolojan at the end of the meeting with the head of state, which took place at the Cotroceni Palace.