SYNTHESIS Informat.ro / Nicușor Dan, mediator or player? The president would have validated a plan that would have been put into motion by the Thuma group from PNL before the motion of censure.

Since the beginning of the political crisis, Nicușor Dan has repeated that he has tried and wants to be a mediating president. On Sunday, when "Romanians were preparing to go to church," in the words of Robert Sighiartău, he announced that the designated prime minister, Eugen Tomac, had submitted his mandate and announced the appointment of a new prime minister, Adrian Veștea, to the "shock" of the liberals around Ilie Bolojan, led by him thereafter.

Immediately after the president's announcement on Sunday, a local press article from April 30 surfaced in the central press, when BizBrașov wrote that there are signals that the "Thuma group" is preparing Veștea for the position of prime minister, in the context of the open conflict with Bolojan at the top of PNL. BizBrașov noted that Veștea was "secretly prepared" to become prime minister, indicating an internal political project within PNL.

How the press in Romania saw the journey from the motion to Veștea's appointment

There are several episodes and analyses that show Dan entering himself into the engineering of PNL, not just reacting to it.

Mediafax wrote after the censure motion against the Bolojan Government about the "failed coup in PNL," that Dan "tried to play PNL like Iohannis, without being Iohannis," calling liberal leaders to Cotroceni to test who he could count on in case of a party rupture.

HotNews and other sources show that the nomination of Adrian Veștea came after he and Hubert Thuma absented from the PNL meeting where Bolojan obtained a total refusal resolution against Tomac's government, while discussions were taking place in parallel at Cotroceni.

Comments from Cristian Tudor Popescu and other editorialists openly talk about the fact that Dan "is still dreaming on the surface," using Veștea as a tool to "break PNL and break Bolojan's legs."

Analyses from Republica or behind-the-scenes articles (Libertatea, Observator, Euronews) describe scenarios in which Dan and PSD converge towards the same objective: removing Bolojan, either through the fall of the government or through a subsequent congress.

How we got here

The PSD–AUR–PACE motion against the Bolojan Government was a breaking moment that reconfigured the power relations in Parliament. The adoption of the motion showed that there is already an anti-Bolojan majority, but not necessarily a stable majority for a new government.

Ilie Bolojan's refusal to resign from PNL and the explicit message that the party will no longer form a coalition with PSD positioned him as a hard anti-PSD pole within PNL.

On the other hand, PSD conveyed that it is willing to participate in a new government formula, but not with Bolojan as prime minister, a sign that the political aim was to remove him from the head of the executive and, indirectly, from control over PNL.

Consultations at Cotroceni followed, a deadlock came, and Nicușor came up with the proposal Eugen Tomac. PNL and USR clearly stated that they would not vote, while PSD showed openness, but with conditions. Nicușor Dan even came out this week with a nervous message in which he criticized the parties for not collaborating and called for their responsibility, emphasizing that "the party's interest is legitimate, but the country's interest must always take precedence."

"I have heard various opinions, that I have satisfied x or y or that I have not satisfied x in relation to y. This is not my mandate! My mandate is: 1. to maintain Romania's pro-Western direction and 2. to prevent a sudden economic collapse that would affect every family. And I am worried that these issues are being discussed today. I have noticed that the parties no longer discuss among themselves and then I chose a person, the most suitable, as I see it, to discuss with both sides to bring them together to govern Romania, in the conditions where none of them came with an alternative solution," Nicușor Dan stated on June 10.

June 12 came, then June 14, the clock was ticking, while the 10-day deadline from the appointment, which took place on June 4, was expiring.

In the absence of a majority gathering, Eugen Tomac seemed to have no chance, and on Sunday, June 14, instead of submitting the cabinet and the government program in Parliament, he submitted his mandate, and Nicușor Dan announced that he appoints Adrian Veștea, to which PSD showed openness.

The liberals around Bolojan shout "betrayal"

Ciprian Ciucu accused Nicușor Dan of interference in the internal affairs of the National Liberal Party (PNL) by nominating Adrian Veștea as prime minister.

He considers Veștea's appointment an "act of aggression against a democratic party," while the statutory leadership of PNL was not consulted regarding this decision. He described the situation as the result of a conspiracy and betrayal, mentioning that those who conspired against the party did not have the courage to present themselves at the meeting of the National Political Bureau.

Ilie Bolojan himself accused "a hostile act" and "an attempt to break PNL, an intention intuitively understood since the overthrow of the government in the interest of PSD."

"The attempt to impose a prime minister from its ranks on a party, without at least having a prior consultation and after all decisions made unanimously by the party's bodies, violates any principle of loyal political collaboration," Bolojan added.

AUR considers Veștea's appointment "desperation"

The first vice-president of AUR, Petrișor Peiu, stated that Veștea's appointment is "embarrassing."

"Mr. Nicușor Dan probably realized too late that the government imposed by him, Tomac, has no chance to pass the Parliament vote and then, in desperation, resorts to the second arm, the appointment of a liberal, intending to break off some votes from the liberal groups," Peiu said.