The drift of democracy under President Iohannis: How the PSD and PNL manipulate political, administrative, and media levers to undermine the opposition

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The PSD-PNL political oligopoly, controlled by President Klaus Iohannis, is swiftly moving towards autocracy. Opposition leader Cătălin Drulă has also spoken about the „drift of democracy” and announced that USR will not vote for Ursula von der Leyen because she „pretends not to see” what is happening in Romania. These are political statements in a tense election year, typical for an opposition party. Yet, the stark facts confirm the anti-democratic drift in Romania, a country The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest report labels a „flawed democracy.”

The coalition’s recent arbitrary decisions aim to stifle political competition, relying on PSD and PNL’s near-total control over the state’s political and administrative levers. State checks and balances are led by leaders from these two parties, with no instances of coalition measures being censored in the past two years.

Furthermore, we are witnessing a deeply antidemocratic trend: the rampant secrecy of clearly public interest information, as revealed by an Economedia inventory.

The de facto start of the election campaign was accompanied by a rush of decisions hindering the opposition, from merging elections to mass recruitments, from stopping funds to media lynching. Notably, Western partners remain silent, thereby validating Bucharest’s political behavior, with accolades such as lifting the MCV and the highly laudatory Schengen report.

Here are the tools through which the PSD-PNL power distorts democratic mechanisms and limits the opposition:

Political

• Merging local elections with European Parliament elections. Decided just three months before the vote, this will majorly impact the opposition, which lacks mayors and county council leaders. This was, after all, the stake of the merger—a power move, despite all recommendations from the Venice Commission, the guarantor of democratic rights in Europe. The Commission has received a complaint from the opposition and will issue a report, but approval seems unlikely.
• Green light for party switching. A government emergency ordinance allows mayors, county council presidents, and councilors to switch parties without losing their mandate. Opposition elected officials are the main targets, as shown by recent news, even though USR and AUR have also tried to attract some PSD and PNL councilors.
• Recruiting opposition mayors. Out of seven USR city and sector mayors, two have already been recruited by PSD and PNL. Gabriel Pleșa (Alba Iulia) joined PNL, while Camelia Berta (Victoria city) went to PSD. Two other USR mayors publicly stated they had been approached for recruitment – Lucian Viziteu (Bacău) and Elena Lasconi (Câmpulung). While switching parties is a personal decision, the pressure from the government on city mayors is clear: without funding from the government and the County Council, every mayor’s hands and feet are tied.
• Removing representatives of PMP and REPER from polling stations. The emergency ordinance for merging the elections, adopted by the PSD-PNL government last week, removed PMP and REPER representatives from polling stations, although they are represented in the European Parliament. There was no explanation for the overnight change to the project, even though the original version of the emergency ordinance granted PMP and REPER the right to be represented. Presence in polling stations is crucial for opposition parties to prevent potential electoral fraud.

Administrative

The Permanent Electoral Authority suspended the PMP’s budget subsidy, an unprecedented measure taken by the institution led by Toni Greblă (ex-PSD) in an election year, even though no other party has received such a sanction. AEP claims it stopped funding due to a lawsuit by Cristian Diaconescu, who does not recognize Eugen Tomac as the party’s president, but there is an enforceable decision by the Bucharest Tribunal validating the congress at which Tomac was elected president.

In parallel, PSD and PNL freely spend tens of millions of euros annually, paying the media non-transparently through a mechanism that Dan Tăpălagă wrote back in 2022 that it poses a real legal problem. Despite these facts, the Permanent Electoral Authority has not stopped funding for either PSD or PNL.

Media

The opposition is boycotted by major media trusts receiving tens of millions of euros from PSD and PNL. A CNA monitoring last year showed that USR is almost invisible in the broadcasts of large audience news channels (Antena 3, Digi24, Romania TV), while PSD and PNL dominate the prime-time shows of these television stations.

The situation has worsened compared to last year, according to G4Media information, and the control over television is even stronger from PSD and PNL, proportional to the amounts spent in the electoral campaign.

Systematic attacks on television channels close to the government. A recent example is the constant attack on RTV on the Roșia Montană topic, targeting USR, Dacian Cioloș, and Nicușor Dan. Right after the arbitration tribunal ruled in favor of Romania, the attacks on the opposition ceased.

Another example was Antena 3, which consistently criticized Nicușor Dan for not passing the Bucharest City Hall budget in the last sessions of the General Council, even though PSD and PNL – the majority in the Council, voted against the budget.

Judicial

USR leaders have repeatedly accused the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of hunting opposition members (the vaccine case and cases against local elected officials in Brașov and Bacău) and protecting government officials by closing cases such as Bode – the BMW acquisition, the mayor of Constanța, or Ion Mocioalcă. This is a severe accusation of political policing.

However, the anti-corruption prosecutors have not only investigated the opposition but also the power. DNA has opened investigations against politicians like Dumitru Buzatu (PSD), Iulian Dumitrescu (PNL), or the mayor of Mioveni (PSD). Statistically, DNA is covered, with investigations directed against all parties.

On the other hand, some independent voices in the judiciary accuse the overall judicial system of degradation. For example, former Cluj judge Cristi Danileț stated that the current Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) investigates and sanctions magistrates for their decisions and that the institution is more abusive than during the Liviu Dragnea regime, referring to the fact that Daniela Panioglu was excluded from the Bucharest Court of Appeal for the fifth time in a year.

With these political, administrative, and media tools, the coalition has entered the four rounds of elections of the super-electoral year. The PSD and PNL stake is to retain power for at least another electoral cycle so that the pot of tens of billions of euros from European funds, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and the national budget remains theirs alone.