Left-Liberal-Conservative-Right alliance abandons ideology for deposition tactics
Romania is set for a new alliance which brings together socialist, conservative, liberal and far right groups under one umbrella – the Social Liberal Alliance
March 2011 - From the Print Edition
Pioneered by Victor Ponta, head of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Crin Antonescu, leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and Daniel Constantin, president of Conservative Party (PC), the Union has the backing of major owners of the Romanian media.
Dan Voiculescu, founder of the PC is a financier of Antena TV stations, Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, who has been very close to the PSD in the last year, is owner of Realitatea TV and Dinu Patriciu, billionaire owner of Adevarul newspaper, have been supporting the establishment of the project through their media empires since its inception.
The Union states that until 2020, the USL should remove from power “the current corrupt and inefficient regime” by democratic means.
However many traditionalists within the parties are concerned that a union between disparate and contradictory ideologies may rob the individual parties of their identity.
Career Liberal Ludovic Orban voted against the USL alliance, because he considers that the PSD is a political enemy. But he will not leave the union and instead will support liberalism inside the USL. Meanwhile around 200 PNL members from Constanta reportedly left to join the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), considering that the PNL has lost its political identity.
Meanwhile former PSD leader and ex-President Ion Iliescu compared this alliance with that of the USA and the USSR during the Second World War to crush Hitler, arguing that ideological incompatibilities can be overcome when there is a common interest.
His comments shocked some as they seemed to compare the PSD with that of Stalin’s regime at the height of the purges.
Also of concern is that the PSD has sneaked the far-right Greater Romania Party (PRM) into the alliance, allowing PRM members to join PSD’s subsidy in Ilfov county.