The PNL is building a Modernization Pole, leaving out the RMDSZ

The National Liberal Party's (PNL) National Political Bureau on Sunday unanimously voted to begin negotiations on absorbing Ludovic Orban's Forța Dreptei (Right Force) party. The Liberals described this as the first step of the “Modernization Pole” (Polul Modernizării), a project aimed at creating a center-right alliance for the 2028 parliamentary elections capable of competing with AUR, which currently leads in the polls.

Ciprian Ciucu, the General Mayor of Bucharest and the party's first vice-president, wrote on Facebook more cautiously about a decision adopted “by a very large majority.” According to Spotmedia, party chairman Ilie Bolojan said at the bureau meeting that the PNL must use its time in opposition to build a “solid center-right political alternative” with credible candidates and concrete governing solutions by 2028.

Orban's return is not unexpected. The PNL's former chairman and ex-prime minister left the Liberals in 2021 after losing to Florin Cîțu at the party congress, and founded his own party. In recent years he has repeatedly and sharply criticized the PNL and former President Klaus Iohannis, mainly because the Liberals brought the PSD back into power. At the PNL's extraordinary congress in June, where he still attended only as a guest, he openly asked to be let back in. “After five years, I'm coming home, even if today I'm only a guest,” he said at the time, urging party members to let the members of Forța Dreptei back in “through the main door.” He apologized for his earlier criticism and added that the Liberals of Forța Dreptei stand behind Bolojan, starting with their support for Ciucu's candidacy for Bucharest's General Mayor. The bureau also decided on Sunday to revive the party's expert committees and to involve outside experts in drafting its program, and at the same meeting it launched efforts to recover money owed to the party due to unpaid bills and contracts signed in breach of regulations.

Differing views on the scope of the pole were already being voiced on Monday. Senate President Mircea Abrudean told Agerpres that the Modernization Pole “is not an exclusive PNL project” and is not limited to absorbing Forța Dreptei, but that every form of alliance that could strengthen the center-right by 2028 is being considered. He ruled out a merger with the USR, however:

“We have not negotiated a merger with the USR.”

According to him, the most that could happen between the two parties is parliamentary cooperation or an alliance, but “there is still a long way to go” for that. Daniel Fenechiu, the leader of the Liberal senators, added that cooperation with the USR would be discussed separately, once the 2028 electoral laws are known. According to Abrudean, it also remains undecided what will happen to the PNL's local and county alliances with the PSD and AUR: these will be examined on a case-by-case basis. The head of the PNL's Oradea organization told News.ro that the pole is a right-wing political project, open to competent people, reform-minded parties and experts, one that could be capable of winning back Romanians' trust in the 2028 elections.

The boldest figures came from MEP Siegfried Mureșan. According to his Facebook post, the pole could rise above 30 percent in voter preference polls right after its formation, and compete with AUR “as an equal.” According to Mureșan, this would push the PSD down to third place, below 20 percent, because voters turn away from a party with no chance of winning — since the right managed to defeat Ion Iliescu, Adrian Năstase and Victor Ponta only when it acted as a united front. The title of his post already refers to a “PNL+USR” pole, which shows that the relationship between the two parties is not entirely clear even within the Liberals themselves.

In July, on B1 TV, Bolojan also spoke about who has no place in the pole. In his view, right-wing forces need joint lists, because splitting the vote benefits those in power, but at the same time every party must first strengthen its own profile, because “we don't want to be anyone's clones.” In his view, the RMDSZ does not fit into this model, since it has always run independently to represent the Hungarian community, although it cooperated well with the Alliance's ministers in government. For now, then, the Modernization Pole consists of one absorption negotiation, a program-drafting process expanded with experts, and plenty of ambitious statements.

Ugar