They say you can’t lie to everyone all the time. But time is relative. The Double Merge episode is part of a series in which minimal decency is the constant victim of each episode, and the culprit gleefully owns up to his mistakes. The press conference of the PSD and PNL presidents, in which the “decision” to merge the local and European parliaments and the PSD list with the PNL list was officially announced, had the potential to be a useful brace of transparency after opaque negotiations. This was only a new episode where the two leaders got confused in their explanations, they came up with contradictory elements even about the meaning of their approach, for example, Prime Minister Çolaku: “Obviously, only two big parties can unite and I can to face an extremist wave”, but also he, answering the question whether this is a construction against AUR: “I am not a negative person, on the contrary, I am a positive person and I believe in God. I cannot participate in a political construction against anyone or a political party. I don’t work like that.”

But the most serious contradiction emerged when PNL President Chuke admitted that his party had approved the double merger rather than the autumn election calendar. Marcel Çolaku replied that it had already been discussed at the coalition level and that he would come as prime minister with a full election calendar from 2024, which implicitly meant that the PNL president was suggesting something within the coalition but was unwilling or unable to get approval National Political Bureau of the NLP, which has just met.

This was the same forum that voted unanimously on November 3, 2023 for the PNL to participate in all elections on its own lists, a decision that then closed the debate on joint lists and the creation of a political alliance for democracy between the PSD and the PNL. . We now understand that this shutdown was a maneuver to mislead the public and even deceive the opposition within the PNL. PNL President Chuke told us that since then the context has changed, contradicting the evolution of the parties in the polls, which are far from the impressive evolution from November until now. So, another lie. In fact, despite this decision, the PNL president agreed on joint lists to the European Parliament. The BPN PNL approved the results of the negotiations after the fact, but this is not enough to convince us that the PNL is still functioning as a party that respects its constitution.

However, returning to the autumn election calendar, it must be said that this is much more important than the double unification. Adding to the repeated lies what now appears to be a deliberate delay in the decision on this calendar to confuse his opponents, we are forced to question the sincerity of the PSD-PNL leaders regarding the sincerity of the assumptions. election calendar. We are told about presidential elections in September and parliamentary elections in December. But isn’t this statement by Prime Minister Cholak another poisoned gift, a false exercise in transparency?

Since it seems that the order of the elections is strictly related to the interests of the two parties, it is wiser to make predictions based on their interests, as written after the statements on February 21. They voiced a clear solution approved by the leadership of the two parties: joint lists. A decision that belongs only to the relevant parties, so we take it as such. Instead, the expediency of the election calendar, which theoretically foresees unified elections in June, depends on a number of legislative changes and possible decisions at the level of administrative proceedings and the Constitutional Court. Starting with the interests of the two parties, much has been said about the joint interest of the leaders of the two parties not to risk their positions after evaluating each party in the European Parliament. We can see that the common list solution largely addresses their avoidance of this risk. There may be a bad score, but the probability of missing the first place is almost zero. At the same time, seats that would help a lot in June can help even more if they are organized in conjunction with parliamentary or presidential elections. Elections more important to both parties, even beyond the immediate interest of their leaders. The bitter potion of the joint list is swallowed not only for weak leaders like Cholaku and Chuke, but only if it paves the way for retaining power. Or the party mobilization bullet at the local level can only be fired once.

A joint list can boost PSD and PNL’s parliamentary or presidential points. Without sociological research, it is difficult to understand which of the options is better. But the coincidence of local and parliamentary elections has the problem of the decision of the Constitutional Court from 2012. And in the press at some point there was an opinion that negotiations are underway to combine the presidential elections with local elections or even the second round of presidential elections with local elections.

Therefore, this last hypothesis looks more likely. This is also consistent with the apparent attempt by the media close to power, see for example the eternal and fascinating Antena3-CNN, to build a pro-anti-extremist split. The PSD, but especially the PNL, is interested in marginalizing the old pro-anti-PSD split (which stems from pro-anti-Iliescu): the PSD has a chance to get the absolute majority needed in the second round of elections. Presidential Elections; Since 2014, PNL has been the largest party in anti-PSD, the memory of this is delegitimizing for it, it needs another legitimization, anti-extremism, anti-AUR meets the requirements. Luckily for them there is GOLD! Se non è vero, è (molto) ben trovato!

At the moment, the great struggle with AUR is being waged as if the party wants to strengthen itself as the only alternative to the current grand coalition. This could lead to a second round of presidential elections, in which PSD-PNL will defend the colors of democratic respectability, then the current speeches with accusations of violation of democracy will be far removed.

However, the entire sequence of 2024 remains risky for the current government, despite the fact that the opponents do not look like a real alternative. The PNL in particular is sacrificing its identity. It is true that governing in the current context is not easy at all, and the alternative for the Liberals was to provoke a government crisis. Electorally, it was also the way to go for the PSD. President Iohannis was not at all suited to such a scenario. The head of state is probably a master of political maneuvers of this period, surprisingly managed to keep the initiative, but risks leaving a disaster in his own party, not to mention the degree of dedemocratization of the regime. In addition, the PSD and PNL are taking advantage of the desire for stability of the Western partners who have provided the backbone for our semi-democracy since at least 2012, but now they seem to be oblivious to what from a distance and in the context of a regional war appear to be details… _Read full article and comment on Contributors.ro