Dude, sit down and hold on tight, because I caught a piece of news that got me thinking just as I was sipping my coffee from the vending machine. Cătălin Predoiu, the PNL senator, said it loud and clear: the party drifted away from its base, but not because it allied with PSD or USR, but because of the policies they implemented while in government. He says, no joke, that "the problem wasn't staying in government alongside a certain party, if you generated the right policies to win back the electoral base and get the country out of crisis." In other words, bro, they messed up on their own, nobody taught them.
Listen up, Predoiu did some research on the last ten years and concluded that PNL lost entrepreneurs and Romanian capital not because they jumped into government with this or that group, but because they made policies that drove businessmen to despair. "The decrease in electoral support was not caused by participating in a government formula alongside one party or another (USR, PSD, or both), but by the content of the policies adopted," he writes. And I say: bravo, sir, for admitting it! But me, I'm not buying this story that it's not the alliances' fault - PNL was still at the controls and they messed up big time.
And Predoiu also says the solution would have been "well-targeted policies for entrepreneurship, development of local administration projects, and national production capacity." Yeah, bro! But why didn't they do it when they were in power? Now, from the opposition, it's easy to pass judgment. He adds that "from the opposition you can't get a country out of crisis," referring to the party's decision to strengthen itself in opposition, which later changed. Well, dude, that's like me saying I'm quitting drinking, and by evening I'm at Fane's terrace with a beer in hand.
Predoiu criticizes Romania's economic model of recent years, built "exclusively around consumption based on imports, European funds (PNRR), the Anghel Saligny Program, and foreign investments." He says that back in 2014, when he made the PNL Government Program - "National Rebuilding. By ourselves, but alongside our strategic partners" - he supported the need for a proprietary economic model. Man, if he knew since then, why didn't he apply it? I don't like hearing words, I want to see actions.
And look, Predoiu postponed the publication of the study so it wouldn't be perceived as a political pretext. He says he'll release it when "passions, tensions, and insults in the party's internal debate cool down a bit." Meaning he's waiting for things to calm down so his words don't get twisted. He also attached a scientific opinion from a former PNL president to make it more credible. Well, if you're a politician, why hide behind studies? Say it to their faces!
In the end, Predoiu wants to strengthen "the rational side of debates in PNL, not the emotional or irrational one." Nice, sir, but in our politics, reason and emotion fight like dogs on the corner. Look, I say if PNL had listened to Predoiu earlier, maybe we wouldn't be sitting here now thinking about elections and saying: "What's up, bro, the country's burning?" Until then, I'm going to tell Mioara that I found out why we don't have money anymore - because of the policies, not the alliances. That way, at least we know who got us into this mess!
