DP Approved the NLP Merger

The Democratic Party is for the merger with NLP (the National Liberal Party) and proposes a calendar, which should end in a congress on the 15th of July. The new formation should be center-right and should affiliate to the European People’s Party (EPP).

The National Permanent Bureau of DP has taken the decision for the merger with NLP unanimously during yesterday’s meeting, according to the announcement made by the DP President Emil Boc. The democrats think the merger should start from the one to one parity principle. In the same time, DP considers that the name of the so-resulted formation will have to contain the names of the two parties. Boc said the new party could be named the Justice and Truth Party (NLP-DP), for example. The DP president said he phoned the NLP leader, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, after the NPB meeting to tell him about the decision.

STAND-BY

The Liberals didn’t hurry to accept the democrats’ plan. The Minister for the Relation with the Parliament, Bogdan Olteanu, stated yesterday in Sinaia, during the reunion of the liberal Parliament members, that NLP has taken the decision of letting the territorial organizations decide about the merger. "On the 24th of February, during the Permanent Delegation meeting, we will discuss this starting from the decision of the local organizations. The central decision will only be taken after that", Olteanu stated.

CALENDAR

The calendar DP proposed for the merger with NLP has precise dates for each step, and the entire process should end on the 15th of July in a Congress, as it follows:

February 1st - March 31st: debates in the local structures of the two parties and the initiation of the local parity commissions, at city level;

April 1st-30th: the initiation of the county parity commissions;

May 1st-10th: the initiation of the commission for the congress organization and of the commission for the elaboration of the new political formation’s statute;

May 10th-31st: the finalization of the statute project and of the calendar for the convocation of the DP and NLP political structures;

June 1st-15th: debates and the making of the statute amendments in the county parity commissions;

June 15th-25th: the finalization of the statute;

July 1st: the approval of the merger between the DP and NLP political structures;

July 15th: the Congress for the DP-NLP merger.

SURVEY: 48.7% "FOR"

According to a SSG survey between the 20th and the 27th of January 2006, made public on Monday, 48.7% of those who would vote for the J.T. alliance in the future think that the best option for NLP and DP is to merge in a single party. 22.7% were for the continuation of the J.T. Alliance, and 15.6% of them for the breaking of the alliance and for a separation of the two parties on the political stage. The survey also shows that if the democrats and the liberals will candidate separately during the next elections, 64% of the Alliance’s voters will vote for DP and 36% for NLP. 3.6% are undecided, 0.4% don’t vote, and 1% don’t know/don’t answer. (Gabriela Antoniu)

Translation by Sorin Balan