Background

On 30 March 2018, Dacian Cioloș announced his plans to establish a new political party, called the "Romania Together Movement".^[5] However, its official registration was never finalized due to various appeals and delays in the legal process.^[6] This was abandoned in favor of the Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (PLUS), which was registered in December 2018 by three colleagues of Cioloș.^[7] On 26 January 2019, PLUS organized its first National Convention, where Cioloș was elected president of the party.^[8]

Soon after Cioloș took the party presidency, it was announced that PLUS will form an electoral alliance with the Save Romania Union (USR), known as the 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance, to participate together in the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania,^[9] and subsequently in the 2019 presidential election and the 2020 local and legislative elections as well.^[10]

On 15 August 2020, USR and PLUS organized a joint congress to decide whether to formally unite the two parties or not, with 84.65% of the participants voting in favor of a merger.^[11] The merger was approved by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on 16 April 2021.^[12]

In October 2021, after a joint leadership with Dan Barna,^[12] Cioloș was elected the sole president of the new party, which retained the "Save Romania Union" name.^[13][14] Four months later, in February 2022, Cioloș resigned as USR president after his presidential project was rejected by the party's National Bureau, with a vote of 14–11. He stated, however, that he would remain member of the party.^[15]

Formation

On 31 May 2022, Dacian Cioloș, along with four other MEPs, resigned from the Save Romania Union (USR), criticizing the leadership of the party: "We do not see in the USR leadership either the desire or the maturity to accept the mistakes of the past and to change a direction that leads the party to political irrelevance". Cioloș and his supporters then announced the formation of a new party, more specifically "Renewing Romania's European Project" (or "REPER" for short).^[16][17] This announcement was met with waves of irony stemming from prominent USR members, including Bucharest Sector 1 mayor Clotilde Armand, former Justice Minister Stelian Ion, and Cosette Chichirău, as well as incumbent party president Cătălin Drulă or former party president Dan Barna.^[18]

Until the party's first congress, the party will be led by Dragoș Pîslaru and Ramona Strugariu as acting/ad interim co-presidents.^[1] Cioloș chose not to hold a position within the party leadership.^[19]