Dacian Ciolos, the new USR PLUS chairman

Dacian Ciolos is the new chairman of USR PLUS, following the runoffs of the internal elections. Ciolos defeated Dan Barna by 19,603 votes to 18,908. The voting was online.   A number of 1,200 delegates of USR PLUS attended the Congress in Bucharest to validate Ciolos’ mandate and to establish the membership of the new National Bureau. The event took place at Romexpo, but, considering the pandemic, with maximum 150 people simultaneously in the hall, therefore delegates who will vote have been split in shifts to cast their votes.Only vaccinated people were allowed to attend the Congress.   93 USR PLUS members have filed their candidatures for the new National Bureau, grouped in three lists, but also three independent candidates.   The USR PLUS chairman elect USR PLUS, Dacian Ciolo?, said after winning the internal elections that after the new National Bureau is elected he will be able to establish the negotiation strategy after the censure motion. Ciolos ruled out any cooperation with PM Florin Citu, but said that “all possibilities are on the table”.   Ciolos also reiterated he is not accepting any position in the Cabinet, saying he will be in charge only of the party.   At the beginning of the Congress , Ciolos said that, following the merger, the party becomes stronger, though stressing that the cooperation between the USR and PLUS members is essential.   He also voiced his confidence that there is no other party except USR PLUS that should has so much confidence in the country’s modernization.   As for his contender Dan Barna, he congratulated Ciolos on Facebook for winning the USR PLUS leadership. He labeled the internal competition as “discrete, but epic”, while wishing Ciolos “a mandate through which USR PLUS should carry on the spectacular story in the Romanian politics that we have been building in the past five years”. The former USR leader said he will still be part of this project and he “will contribute with all his strength”.   ***   Dacian Ciolos, 52 years old, candidate for the leadership of USR PLUS has been involved in politics since his student years; when he activated in the youth organization of a nationalist movement. Then he became minister of agriculture in the Tariceanu government, European commissionaire, prime-minister and the leader of the Renew Group in the European Parliament.   By profession horticulture engineer, Dacian Ciolos gets involved civically since his student years. At the beginning of the 90's he joins Junimea Vatra Romaneasca Cluj, the youth branch of the nationalist movement ‘Uniunea Vatra Romaneasca, set up in 1990 as an answer to the UDMR.   Vatra Romaneasca, organisation of the extreme right, considered UDMR as a danger for the territorial unity of Romania. Beyond the civic movement, Vatra Romaneasca coordinated their political activity with PUNR, a ultra-nationalist party led by Gheorghe Funar. ‘I have never been a party member, I was not a PUNR member, I had no application to join the party, I have no party card, and I have never paid any contribution. I was a member of the Junimea Vatra Romaneasca, as other many students’ stated Dacian Ciolos, when asked if he was the leader of the PUNR youth after the Revolution.   In the mid-90’s Dacian Ciolos gets a governmental scholarship of the French state and goes to study in Rennes and Montpellier. After his master degree taken in France, Dacian Ciolos works as intern agro-economist with the European Commission. Later, he coordinates several agricultural programmes with European financing, being a connection between Romania and the European institutions.   In 2005, Ciolos becomes the adviser of the new minister of agriculture, Gheorghe Flutur, in the Alliance DA (PNL –PD) government. Flutur lasts as minister for two years, then Dan Motreanu replaces him for a short period of time, then being replaced by Decebal Traian Remes. In the autumn of 2007m Remes resigns, as a result of the corruption scandal ‘ The sausage’. Dacian Ciolos becomes the minister of agriculture, at the proposal of PNL premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu. Ciolos keeps the position to the end of 2008, when PNL loses the parliamentary elections and gets into opposition.   Dacian Ciolos is recovered by president Traian Basescu who names him at the leadership of the Presidential Commission for the national strategy in agriculture. At the end of 2009, the Boc government, controlled by Traian Basescu in the shadows, proposes Dacian Ciolos as European Commissionaire for agriculture as the Romanian representative in the European Commission led by Jose Manuel Barroso. Ciolos is validated unanimously by the European Parliament.   After the Euro-parliamentary elections of 2014, president Traian Basescu negotiates with the European leaders that Dacian Ciolos stays as commissionaire for Agriculture in the new commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, but the premier of that time, Victor Ponta supported Corina Cretu. In the end, Corina Cretu was elected for Regional Development. In the summer of 2015, Jean-Claude Juncker nominates Dacian Ciolos as adviser for international food safety, position which he occupies for some months.   In November 2015, the Ponta government resigns as a result of the Colectiv tragedy. President Klaus Iohannis names Dacian Ciolos as premier, to make a technocratic government. Due to the social pressure, the Ciolos government is voted in the parliament both by PSD (led by Liviu Dragnea) and PNL (led by Alina Gorghiu).   Before the parliamentary elections of 2016, the most important parties of the right –PNL and USR – announce they support Dacian Ciolos for the position of premier, but during the campaign, Ciolos hesitates to get politically involved as he claims to be a technocratic premier. As a consequence, the voting is won by PSD with 45%.   In January 2017, President Klaus Iohannis names Sorin Grindeanu as premier and the Ciolos government ends its mandate. Later, Dacian Ciolos sets up Platforma Romania 100, which gives birth to the political party Miscarea Romania Impreuna. But the party is blocked in court. As a result, Dacian Ciolos abandons the project and at the end of 2018 announces another party: PLUS.   In the spring of 2019, PLUS gets an alliance with USR and the two parties go together to the Euro-parliamentary elections of 2019. Dacian Ciolos is at the top of the list USR PLUS for the European Parliament and the Alliance gets a historic score: 22.4% of the votes, being the third, after PNL (27%) and PSD (22.5).   The result of the Alliance USR PLUS was given by the street protests and strong opposition in the parliament against the attempts of the PSD leader Liviu Dragnea to avoid being imprisoned by maiming the criminal legislation. The second day after the Euro-parliamentary elections, Liviu Dragnea was sentenced to three years and a half in the file of fictitious employment in the Teleorman Child Protection Office.   In the summer of 2019, Dacian Ciolos becomes the leader of the group Renew from the European Parliament, the third body as size in Brussels. Renew has strong connections with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. Practically, Dacian Ciolos is the Romanian with the most important position in the European institutions, after that of European commissionaire for transport, Adina Valean.   But the position of European commissionaire comes automatically to Romania by its accession to the EU, while the leadership of a political group is individually negotiated. In case the domestic elections for the leadership of the new party USR PLUS are won by Dacian Ciolos, he will give up the leadership of the group Renew to get more involved in the politics in Romania. However, Ciolos will not resign from his position as MEP.   According to News.ro, Dacian Ciolos announced his party colleagues that he did not intend to become vice-premier or minister in case PNL and USR PLUS resume their governing coalition.   (Photo:https://www.facebook.com/dacianciolos/photos/a.144703355566958/1549233431780603/)