Sorin Grindeanu, response to Ilie Bolojan: “Mr. Bolojan, stop living in the past! Focus on the present and, above all, on the future!”

PSD President Sorin Grindeanu asked interim Prime Minister and PNL leader Ilie Bolojan on Monday evening to take part in forming a new government, arguing that Romania needs a stable majority and an economic recovery program. The message was published on Facebook after Bolojan announced that the liberals would not join a government alongside PSD.

“This is what we are asking of you: to take part—at last!—in building a responsible government. You have the chance to correct the problems that you yourselves created!” Sorin Grindeanu wrote in a Facebook post.

Grindeanu reproached Bolojan, saying that the previous government had been based on higher taxes and duties, rising prices, and declining incomes. The Social Democratic leader argued that PSD is proposing increased purchasing power, the resumption of investments, and a more predictable standard of living.

The PSD president warned that Romania could not afford a prolongation of the political deadlock and told the PNL leader that he must be “part of the solution.” Grindeanu stated that PSD was ready to take part in a new government, but only on the basis of a program supported by a stable majority.

The public conflict between the two intensified after the meeting of PSD’s National Permanent Bureau. Grindeanu said at the time that his party agreed to lead the government only if both PNL and UDMR were part of the executive, addressing Bolojan with the exhortation: “Come on, Ilie, govern!” Bolojan rejected the proposal, stating that PNL refuses solutions that, in his view, cannot work.