Two county organizations of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the senior ruling party in Romania, expressed formal support for another term of the incumbent party president Ludovic Orban.

The leading bodies of the PNL organizations in Iasi and Caras-Severin voted at the end of last week to support Orban for another term after the organizations in two of the six districts in Bucharest took the same step recently, Adevarul reported.

PNL will hold a congress to vote its leadership after the party's disappointing results in the general elections last fall.

The Liberal organizations in the two counties that expressed support for Orban last week are headed by former ministers in Ludovic Orban's cabinet. The organization in Caras Severin is headed by former interior minister Marcel Vela, who lost his position after the December 6 elections, and the Iasi organization is headed by former environment minister Costel Alexe, who is now the head of the Iasi County Council.

"During the mandate of Ludovic Orban, PNL Iasi obtained very good results in the last three electoral elections, managing to offer the county the first complete liberal administration in the last 30 years, both at the Iasi City Hall and the Iasi County Council," the Liberals in Iasi stated in their resolution, according to Adevarul.

However, not all PNL organizations are happy with Orban's leadership. The PNL leaders in Transylvania, one of the party's strongholds, were unhappy with the way he negotiated the seats in the new coalition government and other positions in the local administration.

It's not clear yet who will run against Orban for the party's leadership. One potential candidate is prime minister Florin Citu.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)