For a week, Sorin Grindeanu, the leader of the PSD, has disappeared from the public eye. He has not made any statements about the crisis in Justice, has not commented on the protests in several cities in Romania, nor on the famous press conference organized by the leadership of the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Grindeanu has become a „ghost,” as younger generations say when a friend or acquaintance disappears from social media, refusing to react to a message, image, or video.
Furthermore, the PSD leader was also absent from Parliament on December 15, during the vote on the motion of no confidence against the Government, as well as during the vote on the simple motion against Diana Buzoianu (USR), the Minister of Environment.
Sorin Grindeanu is, among other things, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, and his absence from the plenary session speaks volumes about the slippery and covert way in which he leads the party and collaborates with other coalition leaders.
But more than that, it also indicates the chronic indecision in which the PSD finds itself, caught between the desire to step down from government allegedly to save the party, according to some social-democratic political sources, and the inability of the PSD activists to detach from public resources.
The Darkest Electoral Season for PSD
Sorin Grindeanu, at least until now, has not managed to make a decision, take responsibility for it, and have the capacity to impose it within the party.
He has a major political handicap, being a circumstantial leader who came to power without winning anything. PSD is coming after its darkest electoral season in its history, where political support dropped to less than a quarter of the voters, missing the presidential final in two consecutive rounds of elections and facing a major failure in the elections for Bucharest, where the candidate supported by the social democrats ranked third.
Sorin Grindeanu, besides having a clean electoral dance card, also bears the burden of the catastrophic governance of Marcel Ciolacu, in which he was a minister, being involved in the Nordis scandal, a Ponzi scheme with luxury apartments.
In this dramatic context for the PSD, where all the political influence of over three decades is rapidly crumbling, Sorin Grindeanu is searching for a magical solution to save the "party-state," while keeping his leadership position.
"AUR has started playing with the PSD, just as a cat plays with a mouse. It gives it a little, then leaves room to maneuver, then catches it again," wrote Cristian Hrituc, a political analyst and former presidential advisor during Traian Băsescu's mandates, on his Facebook page.
Opposition within the Coalition
The suggestive description above indicates the risky path that the PSD took when Sorin Grindeanu followed Olguța Vasilescu, the mayor of Craiova, and her husband Claudiu Manda, the party's main strategists at the moment, who came up with the idea of opposition within the coalition, according to several sources consulted for the writing of this article.
PSD's poor strategy - trying to win back AUR's voters, an impossible recovery - makes Grindeanu's party resemble a drunkard waking up after a binge, not knowing which way to go, especially after seeing the score in Bucharest, where Băluță finished in 3rd place...
Cristian Hrituc, political analyst, former presidential advisor
It is so risky that, at this moment, there is a strong pro-AUR current within the party, with mayors making plans to run on behalf of the extremist party to maintain their positions, while at the center, the social democrats have also caused their coalition partners to lose patience, violating the protocol by voting against a majority minister being the last straw.
"The coalition protocol states that no member of parliament from the coalition signs, votes on a simple motion or no-confidence motion," stated Kelemen Hunor, the president of UDMR, publicly signaling the breach of the political agreement by the PSD.
Sorin Grindeanu had the opportunity, especially after becoming the elected party president, to make an ideological decision and steer the party towards the European-liberal zone, but he missed it.
The lack of perspective and understanding of the political trends in the US and on the continent led him to bet on national populism, entering into competition with AUR. This move narrowed even further the segment of potential supporters, with the TikTok patriots, for the most part, being absorbed by Simion's party.
What Nicușor Dan Failed to Achieve, George Simion Succeeds
The political scene in Bucharest has two major weaknesses; it is mimetic and delayed, meaning that the formations are heavily influenced by political currents from the US and, to a lesser extent, from Europe, and their adoption occurs after these have begun to fade, losing their relevance.
Thus, both PSD and AUR have ended up fighting over Donald Trump, the American president who rapidly lost all his influence in the first year of his second term due to his authoritarian and chaotic leadership.
In a somewhat dubious scene, during the no-confidence motion speech, George Simion held a poster with Monica Hunyadi, a protege of the PSD, suspected to have been on the luxury plane paid for by Nordis, alongside Sorin Grindeanu, on a trip to Monte Carlo.
Without making direct references to the relationship between the PSD leader and the attractive businesswoman, who has reached a leadership position at ESZ Prahova, one of the state-owned companies involved in the Prahova water scandal, that poster, at best, was a brutal and direct threat to Sorin Grindeanu.
What the PSD leader has forgotten is that, although the party demands it, it is impossible to form an alliance with AUR. Simion is controlled by people from the secret services who have investigated and had access to information about his ties to Russian espionage.
His behavior, at first glance, seems to have no logic, but since AUR appeared on the political scene, in one way or another, Simion's party has also served the interests of those in power.
The signals that Simion is sending these days, reaching a climax by submitting simple motions against Radu Marinescu (PSD), the Minister of Justice, and Cătălin Predoiu (PNL), the Minister of Internal Affairs, precisely the officials whom the street protesters consider responsible for corruption in Justice, show how fluid the opposition is, incapable of forming a new majority and governing.
What Nicușor Dan, the President of Romania, failed to do in making peace within the coalition and collaborating with the PSD, Simion achieves, showing Grindeanu his hand, warning him that leaving the government will mark the beginning of the end for the "party-state."