Crin Antonescu’s attack on the leadership of the PNL, with the force of the rhetoric typical of the former liberal leader, is as correct as it is immoral.
It is correct because everything Mr. Antonescu signaled and accused are issues visible even from the Moon: Nicolae Ciucă’s very weak candidacy, the embarrassing position in which an entirely inadequate campaign puts him, the lack of vision of the party leadership, and the abyss towards which they are heading.
It is immoral because Mr. Antonescu has these revelations only after he has secured his position, meaning after his wife obtained a new mandate as a Member of the European Parliament, on the PNL list. Before the lists were formed and during the campaign in May-June, his discourse was completely different.
Why this vehement outburst from Mr. Antonescu?
The former liberal president is a politician far too experienced to sincerely believe that at this moment a change of candidate for the presidential elections is still possible, especially since the current candidate is the party's president.
Not even the harm caused by the inept approach of the campaign so far, with the billboards and "Ciucăs" paid for with public money that have spread across the country, is remediable, at least not entirely.
To change the candidate now would mean a potentially lethal destabilization of the PNL, as it would also imply an inevitable questioning of the party presidency, leading to internal turmoil in the midst of an election campaign.
Mr. Antonescu mentions two potential candidates. Ilie Bolojan is indeed the most credible and valuable among the liberals, but he has never shown any interest in the presidential position, so I have serious doubts that he desires such a role.
Moreover, personally, I believe that Mr. Bolojan would be the best possible Prime Minister of Romania, an executive position with extensive powers.
As for Mr. Hellvig, he has repeatedly stated that he is not interested in returning to politics, at least not this year, so he would be forced to mark his entry into the race with a change of heart. And his notoriety, beyond the audience interested in politics, is not extensive enough to ensure a successful last-minute sprint.
And in a country more obsessed with "securism" than ever, I don't know if the relatively recently vacated position of SRI director after 8 years in office is an advantage or, on the contrary, a disadvantage.
I have no doubts that Mr. Antonescu is aware of this. Under these circumstances, the stakes of his outburst could be rather different.
The main target
It is the period when electoral lists are being made for the parliamentary elections. Therefore, it is a key moment for pressures from different factions within the PNL that want to place their candidates in eligible positions. This battle can be fought with flattery but also under the threat of a demolishing image operation exemplified by Crin Antonescu.
It is possible that these positions are not many, considering the major risk that, for the correct reasons invoked by Crin Antonescu, Mr. Ciucă may not enter the second round of the presidential elections. This would mean that a week later, in the parliamentary elections, the PNL would experience a significant contraction.
And then in the PNL, the great struggle for power will begin, with opposition to the current leadership, explicitly affirmed by Crin Antonescu, claiming the takeover and reconstruction of the PNL.
Therefore, Crin Antonescu has fired the first artillery shot in what promises to be the great war within the PNL.
And the target is not actually Nicolae Ciucă. He is not a leader, not even an autonomous politician. Mr. Ciucă is strictly an extension of Mr. Iohannis, who wishes to retain as much power as possible even after the end of his term.
Not because Mr. Iohannis has ever had a project for Romania that he would like to see continued, but, like in his 10 years of office, strictly in his personal interest, primarily to be proposed and supported consistently by the Romanian state for prestigious international positions.
What Crin Antonescu implicitly announces with his attack is that a part of the PNL, the extent of which remains to be seen, no longer accepts the domination of Klaus Iohannis, who has destroyed the party.