Hubert Thuma has turned PNL’s leadership dispute into a procedural challenge: he wants local branches to elect first, and a national congress to follow with delegates chosen by those branches. That is a substantive demand for how party authority is formed, not merely a call for a different name at the top.
After meeting PNL mayors in Ilfov on Thursday, Thuma said their conclusion had been unanimous: the party needs internal elections “from the bottom up.” He argued that elections should be held in every branch before a national contest, and that a congress should include delegates elected in branches, alongside local elected officials and long-serving members.
Thuma also criticised a model in which interim leaders receive office by signature rather than vote and in which congress participants include employees brought from state-owned companies. Those are his political allegations about past party practice, not a newly adopted PNL rule. The available reporting does not include a response from Ilie Bolojan’s leadership or from other county branches to this specific proposal.
The timing gives the intervention weight. HotNews reports that a congress to validate a new leadership is due by July 2027 at the latest, when Bolojan’s two-year mandate expires. The same report says voices inside PNL have discussed an extraordinary congress within months, after a court annulled decisions through which the party had chosen a new team without Adrian Veștea’s supporters.
Thuma’s proposal does not set a congress date or change PNL’s statutes. But it identifies the practical contest ahead: whether the next leadership vote is preceded by branch-level elections and whether those branches control the credentials of congress delegates. Calling for other counties to speak, Thuma is seeking to turn Ilfov’s position into a wider internal coalition.
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Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-12