A sense of presidential satisfaction surrounded the birth of a new cabinet under the chairmanship of Marcel Čolaku: changes at the government level were appreciated as a sign of political maturity. Regarding constitutional procedures related to hearings and voting, they once again demonstrated the submissiveness of some chambers to the will of the executive.

Apart from the euphoria that prevailed during the vote for a new prime minister, the reality of PSD’s comeback can no longer be ignored. This time PSD has the necessary leverage to establish its hegemony. President Iohannis, the one who gave the PSD a new chance and the one who is the direct author of this political arrangement, offers the Social Democrats an opportunity to regain their dominance. PSD, again, after the era of Liviu Dragnea, master of Romania. The 2024 election year will be marked by this new reality.

Hegemony and coalition

Cholaku’s cabinet is apparently a coalition cabinet, a government in which the president and the Liberals appear to hold enough positions to guarantee them decision-making authority. The ambition of the head of state was to build a partnership that would not resemble the defunct USL alliance. A certain balance was envisioned to avoid the previous failures of the Liberals in coalition with the PSD.

But no deal can remove the irreconcilable reality of PSD hegemony from the equation. And the first big gesture of Prime Minister Čolak was to impose his powers at the government level through the OUG, giving expanded prerogatives to Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neats. Read carefully, the emergency decree is a real constitutional blow. Under the new architecture, the deputy prime minister becomes the body that fires liberal-controlled ministries and reduces the general secretary of the cabinet to irrelevance. The lesson of Liviu Dragnia has been learned: control is established through regulations, under the guise of a simulacrum of parliamentary democracy.

For the president and the NLP, the strategy of Marcel Cholaku is a signal to give up illusions about the balance that defines the alliance. As in the previous USL, PSD accepts coalitions as a step towards establishing its own dominance. The PSD does not see the Cholaku government as a continuation of the Chuke experiment, but as the first stage of the electoral process. 2024 is set to be a year of revenge: PSD seeks to win power. A demagogic program and control over budgetary resources are the tools that will be used in this time horizon.

Thanks to President Iohannis, PSD’s prospects are promising. In contrast to the Dragni era, the party is no longer stigmatized, and the emotional stakes associated with corruption and the rule of law are absent from the collective imagination. The taming of the judiciary makes a repeat of Dragni’s scenario unlikely. On this front, there is a dead silence and the dispersal of illusions, fueled by the chimera of collective salvation through the actions of honest prosecutors and judges.

In the parliament, the fragmentation of the opposition is a dramatic sign of its heterogeneity. The possibility of forming a coalition at this point is decreasing, and the PSD can, in case of failure of the PNL, apply the formula of the minority cabinet. In the medium term, raising the AUR is an opportunity for the PSD to strengthen its reputation for democratic respectability. The second round of the presidency, in which the AUR candidate faces the PSD, will be the culmination of this path of rethinking: the rescue of democracy will be the historic mission of Marcel Čolaku and his colleagues. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro