The National Liberal Party is Getting Ready for Unanimity

The Congress of the National Liberal Party spart of the ruling coalitiont will start tomorrow amid widespread discontent regarding the election of top position officials: there is only one candidate for heading the party and the nominees for vice-president positions were named by the party president. The scenario could be upset only by a surprise candidacy from Viorel Catarama.

Initially scheduled for three days, the congress will last only two. The first order of business during the first day would be to bring changes to the party statute and electing the president of the party and his team, that is the Permanent Bureau. During the second day lesser positions will be up for grabs, like the membership in the Executive Committee.
The task ahead for Calin Popescu Tariceanu, president of the NLP and PM, looks simple enough. He, so far, is the only candidate for the top position and can only expect to be elected to it, since he has already the support of the heads of local party organizations.
Surprise may lie ahead as Viorel Catarama suggested a while ago that he would be interested in running for the presidency of the NLP. Though Catarama knows he does not stand a chance to win he would like to run in protest for the way other party leaders were stopped from accessing to the top leadership.
In the first day of the Congress Tariceanu will present his team of five vice-presidents that will run on a ticket with him. Other top NLP members, like former president Valeriu Stoica, honorary president Mircea Ionescu Quintus, and house member Crin Antonescu are expected to raise their voices against this new way of electing the top leadership that Tariceanu promotes. The names of the people who will run on the same ticket with Tariceanu were decided on only in the past few days. Only three of the current vice-presidents will keep their positions: Mona Musca, Teodor Melescanu and Gheorghe Flutur.
The four name to be added to the list is Dan Radu Rusanu, as for the fifth, the bets are out.
The Permanent Bureau membership will be completed with people like Eugen Nicolaescu, Bogdan Olteanu, Cristian Boureanu, Mihai Voicu, senator Puiu Hasotti, house member Dan Motreanu, Adrian Iorgulescu, house member Titus Gherighiof and Minister Mircea Cinteza.
Also well known ahead of the election are the names of the people who will complete the make-up of the Executive Committee: Aleodor Francu, head of PM chancellery, house member George Scutaru, Gheorghe Stefan and Romeo Stavarache leaders of the local organizations, minister Teodor Atanasiu and prefect Ovidiu Draganescu.

The prospective merger of the NLP and Democrat Party could be a second contentious issue of the liberals. Tariceanu is no longer a fan of the project and so it is expected that the proposal he will put forward will not go into specifics regarding the calendar or the technical details of the merger.
Stoica wants to start a debate and to that end drafted a statement on the subject. The problem is that he can subject his statement to party approval only along his candidacy for a position. If I will not be able to subject my statement to party deliberation I will obey, but I leave you to assess if this is still a democratic party, said Stoica.
Former liberal president Theodor Stolojan will also take part at the Congress. He already presented a preview of his speech to the Executive Bureau.
According to it, Stolojan stress his own merits in the success the NLP performed, saying that he took over the leadership of a party in decline which now succeeded to accede to government. Stolojan also says he is pleased that all his accomplishments proved viable but the future of the NLP stays in the success of the Tariceanu government.