Defecting MEP goes solo to build up Romania’s troubled greens

MEP Nicolae Ștefănuță, who defected from the liberals (USR/Renew) in March, will run independently in the EU elections “to obtain a win for the Green family in Romania”, while he opposes the mainstream green party, which lacks “credibility”, he told Euractiv in an interview.

Ștefănuță is aiming to build up a credible green spaceahead of three key elections in 2024. He is running independently to avoid high thresholds and rejects joining a coalition with Volt or other parties.

Ștefănuță plans to represent the youth and their progressive values, targeting social and economic issues such as housing, unemployment, LGBT rights, sexuality, identity, mental health and climate change.

He rejects the traditional green party, Verzii, because it lacks credibility while undergoing an “internal strife”, with the party’s leadership at each others’ throats.

Romania faces a super-election year in 2024, with EU elections in June, local ones in September, and the presidential vote in November.

With the EU elections “setting the tone” for the rest, it is essential to perform well – otherwise, “you don’t exist for the rest of the year” and face political death, Ștefănuță said.

The lawmaker defected in March from his Romanian liberal party, USR, and the European parliamentary group Renew and went on to join the Greens instead. With this shift, he became the second Romanian Member of the European Parliament ever to join the Greens/EFA group.

With just seven months to go before EU election day, he has decided to run independently in the upcoming EU elections in hopes of building a green space in Romania, which has been, so far, virtually non-existent, with no parliamentary representation and no presence in the polls.

“My plan is for growth to happen this way, an independent candidacy that shows that we exist and that there’s room to increase”, he added.

Ștefănuță, who will run as an independent to benefit from the lower 2.5% threshold, the candidate rejected the idea of running in coalition with Volt Romania and two green micro-parties (ACUM and Sens) – current allies of Ștefănuță – to avoid the 7% threshold required for common lists.

“I’m trying to also be realistic because I really want to obtain a win for the Green family in Romania”, he said.

He further categorically denied the possibility of joining the pan-European party Volt, unlike fellow defecting liberal MEP Sophie in’t Veld, who joined Volt Belgium’s EU elections electoral list after being rejected by Volt Netherlands.

Once he has earned back his parliamentary seat, he wants “to start working on a real unity kind of project, as an alliance or a party” to build a “new” and “credible” green space with like-minded partners.

“I count to use this possible win to sell it then in the local elections, to use the win for other elections because all of them come one after the other in cascade”, he added.

Traditional, conflictive greens lack credibility

Bu Ștefănuță believes the mainstream green party (Verzii), which is affiliated with the European Green Party, is not legitimately green, arguing it has lost – along with the rest of mainstream political forces – credibility towards citizens.

“They are not seen as legitimately green in the public eye; they’ve existed for more than a decade, and they’ve never managed to really speak about green issues,” he said.

Another reason to distance himself from the traditional greens is the “internal strife” that swiped the party in 2023.

The Green Party dismissed in May its two co-chairs, Marius Lazar and Lavinia Cosma, accused of scheming the takeover of the party’s control to serve Romania’s socialist party (PSD) interest, G4media.ro reported.

At the same time, the co-chairs accused the secretary-general, Silviu Dimitru, of wanting to collaborate with far-right AUR and take over the party.

The bickering continued with cross-fire accusations of manipulation and included court cases.

“I need credibility for the people, and I need that people to know that we respect, for instance, LGBT rights because some of the older [green] parties that have been here have a sort of nationalist ecology, which I don’t particularly like”, added Ștefănuță, criticising the party’s focus on environment without talking about social issues.

‘Galvanising’ the youth

Ștefănuță, who needs 100,000 signatures even to run, is planning on targeting the young public “that is not represented” and is concerned with social and economic issues such as housing, unemployment, LGBTQI+ rights, sexuality, identity, mental health and climate change.

These concerns “do not overlap with the rest of the population, with the older generations,” which is a “problem” but also “an opportunity”, he said.

“I plan to galvanise the youth and represent them”, he said, adding: “I’m hearing from lots of young people that they want somebody who represents progressive values”.

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)