The internal elections scheduled by Romania's senior ruling party, PNL, tend to dominate the political scene in the country and risk having a major impact on the balances in Parliament as the race between prime minister Florin Citu and party's leader Ludovic Orban becomes radical.

The candidate of PM Citu, Ciprian Ciucu, won over the weekend the internal elections held by the National Liberal Party in Bucharest, against the candidate supported by PM Citu's rival Ludovic Orban, former labour minister Violeta Alexandru.

Both Citu and Orban attend the meeting where the two candidates unveiled their motions and took to the next level the reproaches they are making each other since the campaign began.

PM Citu said before the elections that "the government functioning does not suffer from the campaign," adding that it performs very well. But chances the party will split, at least informally, after one of the two win the September 25 elections, are increasing with each accusation one is throwing against the other.

"The PNL will be much stronger after these elections. You will see that starting September 26, things will calm down and we must assure the Romanians that the government does not suffer after this campaign, the government goes further, the results are very good, you also saw the figures, the budget rectification will be positive, I don't remember a rectification that was positive in the last 30 years," PM Citu claimed, according to Bursa.ro.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)