What belongs together grows together: PNL rebels planning to form a faction with Șoșoacă's former senators

The “rebels” within the National Liberal Party (PNL) who have turned against party leader Ilie Bolojan have begun negotiations with senators elected on the lists of Diana Șoșoacă's SOS Romania party, aiming to form a joint senate faction.

The negotiations were announced by senators Clement Sava and Ninel Peia, founders of the party PACE – Întâi România (Peace – Romania First). The planned mixed faction would be called “Brătienii pentru PACE” (The Brătianus for PEACE), a reference to the Brătianu family, the nineteenth-century founders of the Liberal Party. According to Sava, the goal is “to create a center-right formation” that reaches the seven members required to set up a senate faction.

According to the statement, negotiations are underway with senators from the PNL's “liberal-conservative wing,” though Sava did not reveal their names. According to Știripesurse, the dissidents opposed to the party's withdrawal from government include Nicoleta Pauliuc, Adrian Veștea, Cătălin Predoiu, Sorin Cîmpeanu and Monica Anisie, though the outlet does not claim that they are taking part in the negotiations. Whether the faction is formed depends on whether the PNL expels the rebels, whether there will be enough of them to reach seven members, and whether they even want a joint faction. On Sunday, the PNL leadership issued an ultimatum to party members who have challenged the party's decisions in court and are each seeking 250,000 lei in moral damages: if they do not withdraw their lawsuits within ten days, they will be expelled from the parliamentary factions. According to Aktual24, those who filed suit include Monica Anisie, Andrei Baciu, Lucian Bode, Sorin Cîmpeanu, Alina Gorghiu, Nicoleta Pauliuc, Ionuț Stroe, Adrian Veștea and Hubert Thuma. Gorghiu and Pauliuc have already announced that they will not withdraw their lawsuits. The rebels want the PNL to govern together with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) again, even though Sorin Grindeanu's party brought down Bolojan's government through a motion of no confidence.

Nor is the negotiating partner just anyone. PACE – Întâi România was founded by lawmakers who were expelled from, or left, Șoșoacă's party. Their senate faction ceased to exist on October 21, when Senator Nadia Cerva resigned and their numbers fell below seven; three former members of the group have since joined the PSD's faction. Sava had previously boasted that the no-confidence motion that brought down the Bolojan government could not have succeeded without PACE's faction. If the plan goes through, those PNL members who are suing their own party in the name of its liberal heritage would end up in the same faction as those who entered parliament on the list of Șoșoacă's extremist, pro-Russian party — and who helped bring down the government of the PNL's own party leader.

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