Orban responds to MRI leader’s criticism: Ciolos lived very well during PSD’s time. We had an agreement that he broke. Odd political careers have always amazed me. Ciolos came out of nowhere

National Liberal Party (PNL) President Ludovic Orban has stated that Dacian Ciolos cannot fight the PSD because “he lived very well during PSD’s time,” pointing out that he broke his agreement with the PNL to cleanse public administration of Social Democrats back when he was Premier. “Truth is he doesn’t really have someone to fight in the PSD because he lived very well during PSD’s time. We had an agreement that Mr Ciolos didn’t respect. For example, to cleanse the PSD from public administration. He had Mr Dancu there. The secretaries of state, prefects, agency presidents, almost all the company managers appointed by the PSD were left in office, while the PSD was perceived as being in the Opposition, but it was in fact at rule. Because of these false perceptions – basically the PSD maintained its power –, the failures of the Ciolos Government were pinned on the PNL,” Ludovic Orban stated on Sunday evening on B1TV. “These accusations come out of the blue. Mr Ciolos’s activity centres especially on Facebook. I find this attack very strange. PNL bears the brunt of the battle against the PSD, we are in a bayonet fight against the parliamentary majority. I believe actions are louder than words uttered probably on account of failure to understand the political phenomenon. If someone who says they oppose the PSD attacks the main Opposition party, they render services to the ruling coalition and the PSD,” Orban added. He also said that when the PNL backed Dacian Ciolos for the office of Premier the latter “didn’t turn up his nose.” “When the PNL backed him for the Premier’s office he didn’t turn up his nose. He has awakened now, suddenly, against the backdrop in which the PNL and Iohannis are in an extremely difficult war, against a power that is sensitive to no kind of democratic principle, that doesn’t accept division. Attacking Klaus Iohannis, who is basically the last barricade in the defence of democracy, who maintains the balance a bit, who saves Romania’s external image, and is on the same line of battle against the PSD, I find that an odd gesture which shows a hidden policy that is difficult to decipher today. In this battle, a guy suddenly strikes you, unjustly. We are the oldest party, we are a party who made history and carried on the traditions,” Ludovic Orban concluded.   PNL leader: Odd political careers have always amazed me. Ciolos came out of nowhere   Ludovic Orban has stated in a televised talk-show that odd political careers have always amazed him, referring to Dacian Ciolos, appointed Agriculture Minister by Calin Popescu Tariceanu, nominated European Commissioner for Agriculture by Traian Basescu, and nominated for a second stint by Victor Ponta. “Odd political careers have always amazed me. I’m watching carefully various extremely odd careers. And I’ll tell you that Ciolos came out of nowhere. He was appointed Agriculture Minister by Tariceanu. I am yet to understand why. After the PNL Government fell, he became adviser to Basescu, who was the main adversary of the PNL and who nominated him European Commissioner. After he finished his mandate as European Commissioner during the 2014 elections, who do you think nominated him for a second mandate? Victor Ponta, PSD President and Premier at the time,” PNL President Ludovic Orban stated on Sunday evening on B1TV. Orban pointed out that he has the piece of paper that Victor Ponta sent to Jean Claude Juncker, nominating Dacian Ciolos for the office of European Commissioner, and said that Ciolos did not manage to obtain a second mandate because the EC wanted a higher share of women in these offices. Thus, Corina Cretu got the office instead. “I have the piece of paper that Ponta sent to Juncker, in which Mr Ponta nominates Mr Ciolos as European Commissioner for Agriculture or Regional Development, there also being a second candidacy – Ms Corina Cretu’s – for any portfolio. Because Corina was the filler. Ciolos’s bad luck in not becoming European Commissioner nominated by Ponta was that not enough ladies were members of the Commission. And there is a certain custom, for at least a third of the members of the European Commission to be females, so then Ms Cretu’s candidacy came to solve this problem. That is why Ciolos did not end up being commissioner nominated by Ponta,” the PNL leader explained. He added that, even though Ciolos does not have a party yet, he has joined his “political sponsor,” French President Emanuel Macron, who wants to reform the European ALDE, in order to take part in a European construct. “And today, without having a party, Dacian Ciolos joins his political sponsor, Mr Macron, who is experiencing a dramatic slump, with an approval rating in the ballpark of 20-21 percent, in order to take part in a European construct. But Dacian Ciolos was European Commissioner representing the EPP. Of course, having been nominated by Ponta, he should have joined the Socialist Party. Now he joins Macron, who in fact is not even ALDE. He only wants to reform ALDE. He has Guy Verhofstadt (leader of the group of Liberals and Democrats for Europe – editor’s note), but he also has Matteo Renzi, who is a left-winger, Ponta’s former friend. It’s a sort of stew that completely lacks any substance. Macron has problems at home but engages in European-level politics,” Orban added. The Liberal leader also talked about the time when PNL backed Dacian Ciolos for the office of Premier, back when Ciolos conditioned his joining the party on becoming its president. “Then we said clearly that Ciolos can be backed as Premier on two conditions. Firstly, only if he resigns from the office of Prime Minister. And secondly, if he joins the PNL, because the party cannot back someone who isn’t a member of PNL. I remember. Mr Ciolos liked the PNL a lot if he wanted to become PNL President without elections and by conditioning his joining the PNL on us...

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