Administrative reform: Maramureș is already rebelling

The PSD has not even agreed on how it would reorganize Romania's counties, yet one of its MPs is already hinting at leaving the party. Lucian Morar refuses to even hear about Maramureș being merged into an administrative unit centered on Cluj-Napoca, and is ready to turn against his own party in defense of his homeland. Whether he has actually already quit over this, or is merely threatening to walk out the door, is harder to determine from his statements than which county would be attached to where.

The administrative reform is still only in the preparatory stage, but the PSD already has its first rebel from Maramureș. In a Facebook post on November 13, Lucian Morar declared that he will never agree to the administrative abolition of his county and that he firmly opposes any such idea. He claims that party leaders operating in Bucharest and Brussels forget about the locals' history, traditions and will, while Maramureș's leading politicians would rather stay silent than risk angering the national leadership. He wants none of that: from now on, he is rebelling for Maramureș.

On Antena 3, the protest was accompanied by talk of leaving the party as well, although the timing of that shifted somewhat during the interview. When asked whether he had left the PSD, he first said yes, then explained that he hadn't actually wanted to leave, but that someone finally had to pull the emergency brake. Later he made the break conditional: “If they abolish Maramureș, then yes, MorarEXIT.” So the political brand name is ready, even if some organizational uncertainty remains around the actual departure.

In any case, he has not yet informed party chairman Sorin Grindeanu, but he has spoken with Gabriel Zetea, the PSD's leader in Maramureș. According to Morar, Zetea also promised to do everything in his power to preserve the county's autonomy — meaning that the local party organization is already mobilizing in defense against a reorganization that, according to the national leadership, hasn't even been discussed yet.

The outrage was triggered by the idea that the merger of counties could be based on the territorial jurisdiction of Romania's courts of appeal. There are fifteen such courts in the country; the one in Cluj-Napoca covers Cluj, Maramureș, Bistrița-Năsăud and Sălaj counties, so under a version based on this model, these would be grouped into a single unit centered on Cluj-Napoca. The idea was put forward by Dragoș Benea, the member of the European Parliament overseeing the PSD's reform preparation work, though he did not claim that the final outcome would necessarily consist of exactly fifteen administrative units.

On November 11, on Antena 3, Grindeanu tried to steer the story back to the level of mere brainstorming, saying that such a reorganization of counties had not even been discussed within the party, and that Benea's proposal had already turned into a map in the public sphere. Regardless, the party chairman considers the reform necessary, since many small localities are unable to sustain themselves from their own revenues, provide adequate public services, or prepare EU-funded investments.

For now, Maramureș remains where it is; the fate of Morar's party membership is less clear. In any case, the PSD's reform has already produced an internal rebellion before any final proposal has even been drafted. So Grindeanu will first have to convince his own MPs of what he wants to reorganize before tackling the country — otherwise, in the end, there will be more roads leading out of the party than new connecting roads linking the merged communes.

Ugar