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Romania Ruling Party Purges Strongman’s Critics

November 19, 201818:48
Romania's ruling Social Democrats removed several critics of strongman Liviu Dragnea from the party and from government posts on Monday. 
Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea before the meeting on Monday. Photo: Octav Ganea/Inquam Photos

Romania’s ruling Social Democratic Party on Monday dismissed seven cabinet ministers and sanctioned several high-profile party members, sparking concerns that the leadership is bent on purging all party members who have been critical of its strongman Liviu Dragnea.

The party’s executive committee removed Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Vranceanu Firea, one of Dragnea’s most vocal critics, from all of her positions in the party. It also withdrew its political support for her mandate as mayor.

The leadership also fired seven ministers as part of a reshuffle of Prime Minister Viorica Dancila’s cabinet. Among them was Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stanescu, another high-profile member who has opposed Dragnea in recent months.

“They wanted to kick me out of the Executive Committee,” Gabriela Firea told reporters after the seven-hour debate. “It’s revenge,” she added. 

Earlier this month, the Social Democrats also voted to exclude MP Adrian Tutuianu, former Defence Minister in 2017 and deputy speaker of the Senate, as well as Marian Neacsu who was the Social Democrats’ secretary general, because they had signed an open letter against Dragnea released in September.

On November 16, Tutuianu announced that he was challenging his exclusion from the party in court.

Dragnea told journalists on Monday night that Firea was not excluded from the party because of her position as Bucharest mayor, which he said benefits the party.

Dragnea won a party confidence vote on September 21, after several top members, including Firea, Stanescu, Tutuianu and Neacsu, demanded his resignation over graft cases in an open letter.

Several former allies of his had signed the letter calling on Dragnea to step down because they believed his two corruption sentences and authoritarian style were vulnerabilities.

Dragnea, who took over the party leadership after former PM Victor Ponta was indicted for corruption in 2015, could not become Prime Minister himself in January 2017 because of a sentence from the year prior for attempting to rig a referendum.

In June 2018, he was sentenced again for abuse of office. His first appeal hearing has been postponed several times. He is also under investigation in a case involving embezzlement of EU funds.

Romania has experienced political turmoil in the past two years, as the Social Democrats push for changes in justice legislation to curb the influence of prosecutors and modify corruption-related offences. 

The moves were criticised by the European Union in its special monitoring report on justice affairs released on November 13. They have also led to the country’s largest protests since the fall of the communist regime.

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